Category Archives: Fleet

Van drivers reckon they could save nearly £3,000 a year – by switching to electric vehicles

October 12, 2023Buying/Leasing, Electric Vans, Fleet, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Over half plan to go green within the next two years – and six in ten feel it will give them a good opportunity to do business with a more socially conscious clientele

Britain’s “white van men” are going green – with millions eyeing up an electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid, according to research.

The average van driver reckons they could save more than £2,720 a year in fuel by moving away from petrol and diesel – and 55% predict they will be behind the wheel of an electric vehicle within the next two years.

Cllr Dermot Bambridge and Facilities Manager Stephen Wright

Six in ten also believe that driving an EV could even open up new opportunities to do more business with a socially conscious clientele.

A spokesman for GRIDSERVE, which commissioned the poll of 500 van drivers to highlight its Sun-to-Wheel EV charging solutions, said: “It’s great to learn today’s van drivers are also following the trend, and switching to electric.

“Vans are vital to the everyday running of the UK, delivering parcels and getting tradespeople to their next job – so it is essential this group sees the benefit of going green, and is adopting the technology.

“These drivers are a key part of the electric road revolution, and will make a huge impact as more and more switch to cleaner vehicles. Our calculations estimate that switching the UK’s fleet of vans to electric could save 15 million tonnes of CO2 every year.”

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Plugging into the future: electric van production begins at Ellesmere Port

September 18, 2023Electric Vans, Fleet, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

In nearly 60 years of making cars Ellesmere Port’s Vauxhall factory had come close to the end several times, said the Unite union convener John Cooper, standing beside the body of an electric van on the production line. Last-minute negotiations saved the plant each time, but it was a close-run thing.

Things have changed now: on Thursday the site began production as the UK’s first factory dedicated purely to producing electric vehicles at scale. It is a landmark moment in the shift away from fossil fuels for the British automotive industry.

LONDON (Mar. 28, 2017) – Over 100 years after the legendary London department store first added an electric van to its fleet, Harrods is once again returning to EV technology, with the addition of the 100-percent electric Nissan e-NV200 delivery van. The British department store is the latest European business to add a zero emission Nissan e-NV200 to its fleet, with more than 27,000 Nissan electric vehicles sold to businesses across Europe so far. Nissan officially handed over the 100-percent electric van to Harrods outside its luxury Knightsbridge store this week.

The plant, by the River Mersey in Cheshire, will assemble 50,000 electric vans a year under the Stellantis group’s Vauxhall, Opel, Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat badges, with passenger car versions to come next year.

Inside the 1960s shed, newly installed robots trundle around following lines on the floor. They carry 50-kilowatt-hour batteries – enough to go 175 miles – around the plant. The batteries are assembled on-site, using cells from China, before they reach the “marriage” stage of life: being lifted up to be bolted to the bottom of the van’s metal bodies.

Shifting to electric vans before a 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel sales will be a key part of cutting the UK’s carbon emissions to net zero. Carbon emissions from vans have been increasing, in part because of the boom in online retail orders.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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One electric vehicle sold every minute in July as UK car sales rise

August 24, 2023Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, Electric Vans, Fleet, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Some 143,921 new vehicles were registered in July, up 28.3% on a year ago
Electric vehicles (BEVs) registrations jumped by almost 88% to 23,010
Demand for fleet and business vehicles was biggest driver of sales

UK car sales have now risen for 12 months in a row, despite the ongoing consumer squeeze, with demand for electric vehicles gathering pace, industry figures show.

Some 143,921 new vehicles were registered last month, up 28.3 per cent on a year ago, marking the best July since 2020, when sales spiked after three months of lockdown.

However, the overall market remains below pre-pandemic levels, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

Battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations jumped by a whopping 87.9 per cent to 23,010, meaning one new electric car was sold every minute in July.

New BEVs took a 16 per cent market share in July, compared to 10.9 per cent a year ago, with the SMMT anticipating the figure will rise to nearly 23 per cent across the whole of 2024.

Plug-in hybrid registrations also saw a significant uplift for the second month in a row, rising 79.1 per cent to 11,702, while some 16,321 hybrid vehicles were registered in July, an increase of almost 19 per cent compared to a year ago.

Electrified vehicles, including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and BEVs, accounted for 35.4 per cent of the market in total.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Drivers can save £25,000 on new electric vehicle as Plug-in Grant scheme extended

May 26, 2023Electric Vans, Fleet, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionRepost

Motorists and businesses around the UK will be able to save money on electric vans and HGVs this year after the grant scheme was extended again.

The Office for Zero Emissions (OZEV) has confirmed an extension to the Plug-in Van Grant, which allows motorists to save money on a new electric vehicle. It is understood that OZEV upgraded the limit of Plug-in Van Grant orders per user from 1,000 units to 1,500 units per financial year.

The limit was originally introduced in December 2021 to “ensure best value for money for the taxpayer” and make sure budgets were distributed as fairly as possible.

Dennis Eagle eConnect electric refuse vehicle (Image: Dennis/Twitter)

OZEV is believed to be keeping the Plug-in Van Grant under continual review and could eventually pull the grant once it is satisfied with uptake.

Some vans can be sold at a 35 percent discount, with small vans attracting a maximum discount of £2,500, with drivers able to use this on popular brands including Vauxhall, Nissan and Toyota.

Motorists can get a maximum discount of £5,000 when purchasing a new large van, which must be between 2,500kg and 4,250kg in weight, have CO2 emissions of less than 50g/km and be able to travel at least 96km (60 miles) without any emissions.

Commenting on the announcement, Gerry Keaney, chief executive of the British Vehicle Rental and Licensing Association (BVRLA), praised the move but warned of the challenges faced by van drivers.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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2030 vehicle ban may be ‘as simple’ as swapping petrol and diesel cars for electric

May 24, 2023Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, Fleet, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The switch to electric vehicles will not be a simple process, according to one expert who exclusively told Express.co.uk that a number of factors still need to be considered.

The UK is less than seven years away from the deadline to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles, the biggest measure in the transition to electric vehicles. Certain new hybrid vehicles will be authorised for sale between 2030 and 2035 provided they can travel a significant distance without releasing emissions.

Some businesses and fleets are already starting to switch to electric vehicles and preparing the infrastructure needed to cope with the level of charging.

Paul Holland, Managing Director for UK Fleet, Allstar, commented on the global transition from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric and what barriers the industry faces.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, he said: “Going electric isn’t as simple as swapping every ICE vehicle for an EV – although it can be.

“A company that has a small fleet of company cars for salespeople and executives can simply change their existing vehicles to EVs as needed, and provided their drivers have access to home charging there should not be any major changes needed.

“Fleet managers may want to switch from general fuel cards to those specific to EVs (EV charging cards) so that their drivers could use public charge points, but otherwise day-to-day operations will stay the same.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Under the skin: How robots can be used to charge electric cars

May 1, 2023Electric Cars, Fleet, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionRepost

With high-current cables becoming heavier, Hyundai’s ACR project provides hands-free charging

Charging EVs, and particularly how fast EVs can be charged, is seen as a major barrier to their uptake.

Speed is going to become an ever more pressing problem because, unlike petrol and diesel cars, EVs need a dedicated parking spot for a significant period when charging, so the less time they spend doing it the better.

A MINI chassis receives a polish at BMW’s Oxford plant. Source: BMW

However, faster charging and higher power being transmitted will mean cables become heavier, thicker and more cumbersome. That will make conventional handling difficult or impossible, especially for people with mobility problems.

It may also make things trickier in the dark, simply in terms of presenting a charger plug to the charge port and plugging it in. Hyundai’s answer to all this is the automatic charging robot (ACR).

The ACR was revealed in CGI videos last year but the real thing was on display at the 2023 Seoul mobility show in March. The ACR is installed at the side of a parking bay. The driver of the car (which in the demo is an Ioniq 6) pulls up in front of the bay, hops out and presses a button on the key fob, which instructs the Ioniq 6 to self-park and charge.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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British Army Land Rovers, at least 4 of them, are going electric

April 19, 2023Electric Vans, Fleet, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionRepost

Look at that diesel engine go

Old Land Rovers never die, nor do they even fade away. Sometimes they become electrified.

The British Army is about to begin a project to modify a quartet of in-service military Land Rovers, and to convert them from diesel to electric power.

The conversions are to be done by UK defense contractor Babcock International in partnership with EV experts Electrogenic under a one-year contract granted by the British Ministry of Defense. Then the army “will assess performance over steep terrain, wading and towing, and different climate-related conditions,” according to Babcock.

The processes involved in EV conversions include dropping out the old diesel engines and fitting new, as-yet-unspecified electric powertrains before the cars are pitted against their old-school brethren.

The British Army purchased its first batch of Land Rovers in 1949 to be used for rugged, off-road purposes, much in the way that the Jeep served the military for the United States. Most army Land Rovers have been retired, but clearly some are still in service, and there is also a thriving business in Britain to sell restored examples.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Fact or fiction: the truth about EVs and fleets

February 22, 2023Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, Fleet, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

When it comes to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), fleet decision-makers tend to be among the best-informed people in the country.

And they need to be: fleets are setting the pace when it comes to electrification as organisations strive to lower emissions and costs and be ahead of the game when it comes to the 2030 ban on the sale of conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans.

However, not all fleets and company car drivers are enthusiastically embracing the technology.

Some of their opposition is rooted in traditional arguments against BEVs, such as cost, insufficient driving range and confusion over types of charging cables and the number of apps needed to charge a vehicle on the public network.

In this feature, we look at six of the most common concerns, in a bid to examine what the truth is and help fleet decisionmakers accelerate their transition to BEVs.

1 EVs are too expensive

When considered purely from the point of the vehicle purchase price, this would be a borderline open and shut case: as a general rule, BEVs typically have a retail price several thousand pounds higher than their petrol or diesel counterpart.

These increased prices are also reflected in their lease rates, making an electric car seemingly more expensive to add to a fleet than an ICE (internal combustion engine) model. The difference in cost for a zero-emission van is even higher.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Comment: What will electric car tax mean to EV drivers like me? How much will it cost?

November 30, 2022Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, Fleet, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionRepost

After any budget announcement there is always a great deal of hand-wringing from those who are suddenly being taxed more, or feel that incentives don’t go far enough.

This time, it is the turn of electric car drivers like me.

The chancellor stood up today and said that the zero rate for road tax on electric cars is going to end. In addition, benefit-in-kind rates for company car drivers making the switch are going to rise 1% per year from 2025.

There are concerns, of course, but generally the reaction from electric car drivers across social media has been much less angry than expected.

Drivers seem to acknowledge that the change was inevitable as electric cars became more popular and the hole in the government’s finances became bigger.

Battery electric vehicles have accounted for 14.6 per cent of the total new car sales so far this year, outstripping the demand for diesel.

The share is growing fast, with registrations up nearly 40 per cent this year, meaning there are now more than a million plug-in vehicles on British roads. That’s a lot of tax to give away for free.

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Autumn Statement: Company car tax to increase by one percentage point

November 29, 2022Electric Cars, Fleet, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The Government has announced in the Autumn Statement that benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax for electric vehicles (EVs) will continue to be kept low to increase uptake.

The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said he had listened to the fleet industry and would increase company car tax for EVs by one percentage point year-on-year for three years from 2025.

Currently, BIK for a pure EV is 2% (2022/23) and remains at that rate up to April 2025. The Chancellor’s announcement means that it will increase to 3% in 2025/26, to 4% in 2026/27, and 5% in 2027/28.

Paul Hollick, chair of the Association of Fleet professionals (AFP), said: “We have been strongly expressing that the position of EVs in the UK fleet sector remains at a relatively early stage of adoption and the increases in company car taxation, of 1% percent per year, seems well-judged to us at first glance.

“Crucially, they will allow fleet decision makers to plan for the second half of the decade as they continue the process of electrification.

“This is something for which we have been campaigning in conjunction with BVRLA and it is to be welcomed.”

Ashley Barnett, head of fleet consultancy at Lex Autolease, said that the publication of company car rates beyond 2025, “reaffirms” the Government’s commitment towards a greener future and gives decision makers the clarity they need to accelerate their transition towards EVs.