MOTORING
Stuart Thomas
Alternative fuel investment anxiety revealed in report
A report jointly commissioned by the AA and BT’s Fleet Solutions has revealed business and SME anxiety about the investment required into the UK’s electric vehicle infrastructure to support the alternatively-fuelled fleets of the future. In five years, 63% of SMEs and
businesses expect to be using alternative fuels to power their business vehicles, according to the second annual Operational Fleet Insight report. Nearly half of the report’s respondents felt Government organisations should be lobbying for greater investment in electric vehicle infrastructure to support these alternatively-fuelled fleets. The AA has already trained all of
its patrols to be able to respond to, and assist, owners of electric vehicles. Additional key take-outs from
the report include: • 66% of respondents support the introduction of more clean air zones
‘The interior is uncluttered, typically Volvo functional and yet obviously designed to a very exacting design brief’
This mode of driving does have a tendency to
drink juice from the fuel tank and batteries, but you’d have to try it at least once if you bought the car. It would be churlish not to. And if you’re going to go for the shove-you-back-
in-your-seat lead right foot technique, then there are few places more comfortable than the big XC90 in which to do it. The interior is uncluttered, typically Volvo
functional and yet obviously designed to a very exacting design brief. All the controls fall readily to hand and, on the
centre console, a nine-inch touch screen tells you exactly what’s going on. All the buttons are built into it (it’s a bit like having
an iPad – other tablets are available) where it’s easy to navigate your way through the selection of menus and where, for example, you can file all your apps for things such as climate control, satellite navigation and in-car entertainment. In fact, specify the optional Apple CarPlay and you can add your own tunes from external devices.
Priced from £68,615, the T8 I tested came in R-
Design specification, but with just a few optional extras the price quickly nudged above the £70,000 figure, so a car for the sophisticated owner, not the exponent of banger-nomics. However, the XC90 range does start at £48,655,
for the time being, if you want to be one of the last people to buy a purely diesel-powered D5 variant.
• 66% feel they have been impacted by Brexit
• 68% expect Brexit to have an impact on their business over the next year
Stuart Thomas, Head of Fleet
and SME at the AA, said: "Fleets are the backbone of British business, keeping firms on the road and running successfully. In just five years, almost two-thirds of fleets are likely to be powered by alternative fuels. We have witnessed many of the manufacturers unveiling future electric vehicles or making announcements about a timetable for the electrification of their model line-up. “We are working closely with
businesses to train them to make the most of this electric vehicle (EV) revolution to help them to prevent downtime and loss of income. We join with the UK's businesses to lobby for greater investment in EV infrastructure to support the alternatively-fuelled fleets of the future.”
business network November 2017 69
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