Fleet profile
Right: When suitable models become available, Defra’s goal is to ramp up EV adoption massively.
24%
Defra’s ULEV car fleet is around this figure and 300 of those are EVS.
the existing public charging network and home charging. “Those drivers who own a house don’t find it too hard to switch over to electric but we need to cater to those who just don’t have the ability to have a charge point fitted into their home, as they’re currently reliant on the public and work charging network.” Eynon explains that his fleet is working on installing charge points in rural areas to make the journey less daunting for those who live and work more rurally than others. “We want to let the public use those as well so there’s a bigger piece about sharing and ultimately sharing assets like charge points across companies and public networks. I believe this is the key to the successful future of electric mobility.” But the goal for now is to change the culture around electric cars. “Right now, drivers can’t just rock up somewhere in their EV without planning their journey beforehand and charging at home or at work. We’re now seeing new initiatives in the marketplace such as a move towards people borrowing someone’s charge point in their village or town that’s within a 10 minute walk of their property. They book it via an app, plug in any pay using the app too. This is a really positive move and part of the disruptive phase of charging that we’re heading into now,” he explains.
Below: As of yet, there area a limited number of hydrogen refilling stations around the country.
But in the emergence of this disruptive phase, Eynon explains that some people are getting left behind. “The whole industry is facing an interesting time at the moment and has never felt so much pressure in terms of people moving away from ICE to electric, but we’ve gone past early adopters now to a big chunk of drivers where it’s a much harder battle to win their hearts and minds. Those early adopters are driving around in EVs but many myths remain about limitations of electric vehicles when compared to petrol or diesel equivalents. Due to this, Eynon believes it’s vital for education on electric vehicles to ramp up too. “Teaching people how to drive electric and get the most out of them is something that we should continue to work on as an industry,” he says. “This is especially true as EVs now meet the needs of most drivers, so the time to get
comfortable with driving them is now. Some EVs offer up to a 300 mile range and most of our drivers will not even get close to doing that in a single day, and if they did they’d need to stop anyway.”
An electric future
In the car fleet, the goal is to implement an EV only policy by the end of this year. “We offer our drivers ULEVs only now, including PHEVs, so we will have to change that policy to meet these targets and figure out how to do so in a way that doesn’t cost a crazy amount of money,” says Eynon.
Currently, around 24% of Defra’s car fleet is ULEV and over 300 of those are full EVs, and the intention is for this to ramp up electric massively over the next few years, says Eynon. But the other issue right now, aside from charge points, is vehicle availability – it’s taking anywhere between six to 12 months for a new vehicle order to arrive.
Despite this, Eynon is still focusing all his efforts on the car fleet side to electric. “I don’t personally believe in PHEVs as they carry a lot of weight lugging the engine and batteries around that they’re not particularly
efficient for usage long-term. As for hydrogen, Eynon explains that the network is lacking with a limited number of refilling stations and temperamental stations, however, he wants to encourage the use of this technology as the bigger the production, the cheaper the costs. Hydrogen would also address the weight limitations seen in the fleet’s larger vehicles when it comes to electric. I believe hydrogen is the answer for these vehicles so there is clearly no single silver bullet when it comes to the future of transport.”
Obvious issues aside, the Government wants to lead by example when it comes to electric and Eynon says it’s his job to lead the Government thrust on this and ensure his fleet is pushing forwards and (literally) leading the charge. When it comes to the cost of electrification of the fleet, Eynon is confident that the adoption will provide cost savings to the fleet and its drivers.
From a financial perspective, “Worst case scenario, we breakeven,” he says. “Best case scenario, we save money with massive carbon reduction to boot.”
Eynon’s focus is on reducing the size of the fleet, with recent changes to working practices as a result of the Covid pandemic accelerating this process, as people are beginning to do more home working, as well as its carbon footprint. But a sharing economy is also in Eynon’s periphery as reaching future CO2 reduction goals.
The fleet is working with Enterprise, Car Share, The Miles Consultancy, Mobilleo and Liftshare on the UK’s first wide scale trial of shared mobility.
“Whether people are in the office for five days a week or one and use their car on the odd weekend or every weekend, we want to take their travel patterns and put them together into a holistic view to see if we can truly make shared mobility a reality,” Eynon says. “We don’t think everyone will need to have company cars anymore but instead select the mobility they need when they need it. By 2030, I want to see far more of a sharing economy and a more vibrant landscape that can make better use of technology to deliver freedom, flexibility but also environmental gains.”
18 | May 2022 |
www.businesscar.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
