Is now the time to consider introducing EVs into your car or van fleet?
Plenty of businesses, large and small, already have. DPD, Siemens, Fruit 4 London, British Gas to name a few.
Here we will examine some of the considerations and bust some of the myths that surround electric vehicles.
Worried about backing the wrong horse?
Waiting for the next ‘big thing’ might seem attractive, and in the case of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, their potentially increased range and faster refuelling times seem attractive.
The facts are that battery electric cars outnumber hydrogen fuel cell cars by about 8,000 to one. Just as VHS won out over Betamax, this race is won already.
Fuel cell cars will be no cheaper to make, are no more efficient, require an infrastructure which simply does not exist, and yes, fuel cells also require minerals in their manufacture. Making hydrogen using renewable energy is very expensive, and making it from natural gas, whilst cheaper, completely defeats the whole purpose.
Running costs
Some elements of the media have recently promoted the view that EVs are no cheaper to run than diesel cars, thanks to the current high price of electricity.
There is a tiny grain of truth in this, but it completely distorts the reality. If you, as an EV driver, relied solely on motorway network rapid or ultra rapid charging, then yes, it would be expensive.
In reality though, no EV driver does this.
The vast majority of EV owners will use off-peak i.e. overnight, charging, which will return a cost per mile of around 5-7 pence. A reasonably efficient diesel car would be around 16-18 pence.
Overnight charging, even with a domestic 7kW charger, will provide an electric car or van with a full charge, and therefore a range, depending on the vehicle, of between 150 and 250 miles.
So this is the first consideration for a business considering an EV – will the vehicles’ typical daily mileage fit within its stated range? Even if en-route charging at a public charge point is required, it need not be a full charge, nor need it be the more expensive rapid charging.
Range
The electric cars and vans available now have quoted ranges of between 150 and 250 miles, many even higher.
Most existing EV drivers will tell you that the actual available range is less than that stated by the manufacturers, just as official petrol or diesel mileage figures are rarely achievable. It would be reasonable to assume that the actual typical useful range might be 90-95% of the official WLTP stated range.
Range will decrease slightly in cold weather, and at motorway speeds.
En-route Charging
Pictures of Tesla drivers queuing at motorway charge points certainly don’t help the case, and the industry admits that the number and availability of public chargers needs to increase. This much publicised issue at Christmas does not represent the normal situation however.
Running an EV successfully does require a shift in mind-set when it comes to fuelled strategy, but it is not hard.
As of January 2023, there were 37,851 public charge points in the UK, up 31% from January 2022.
Servicing Costs
Battery EVs are mechanically very simple, far more so than modern petrol or diesel cars. There is very little that needs regular servicing, so their running costs are significantly lower than the fossil fuelled equivalent.
An operator may reasonably expect their routine maintenance costs to be at least half, if not less.
Driver acceptance
All businesses that have introduced electric vehicles, be they cars, vans or buses report that their drivers are very enthusiastic and fully committed to them. EVs are just better to drive, it’s as simple as that. They are quieter, smoother and generally outperform their petrol or diesel equivalents.
Environmental aspects.
Myths abound when it comes to the environmental performance of EVs.
The batteries only last a few years and then you have to throw them away. Manufacturers will warrant their batteries for typically 8 years now. There are plenty of examples of EVs with well over 200,000 miles.
At the end of the vehicle’s life, the batteries will often have a second life in static energy storage applications, or be recycled.
Carbon Footprint – a recent report which stated that an EV has to travel 80,000 miles before it becomes ‘carbon neutral’ has been widely discredited as misinformation. Yes, the carbon impact of manufacturing an EV is higher than that of a combustion engine car, (the exact figure varies according to battery size), but this carbon deficit is usually recovered in the vehicles first year or so, depending on the power source.
Child Labour is used to mine the cobalt used in batteries. Myth.
Other Myths. We won’t insult your intelligence with myths about EVs catching fire in crashes and taking days to burn out, that you can’t drive them through floods or charge them in the rain….
Conclusion
A fleet operator would never switch all of their vehicles to electric all in one go. Virtually all operators who have introduced them though have plans to increase their numbers. The inevitable initial reticence is very quickly overcome when you do make the switch. Here at the Clean Tech Business Group we know this from personal experience.
The key considerations for a business are the potential to charge at off-peak rates overnight, and having a daily operating cycle that more or less matches the vehicles available range. That’s not to say that en-route charging at public charge points would be any sort of failing though, but it wouldn’t be the de-facto charging regime.
In these scenarios, the lifetime costs of running an electric car or van will be significantly lower than that of a petrol or diesel.
In carbon terms, switching from fossil fuels to electricity has the potential to deliver significant carbon reductions for a business.
Ewan Bent 23rd February 2023
