Fleet & mobility management
an EV salary sacrifice scheme to provide employees with an option to forgo part of their gross salary in exchange for a new electric lease car: the monthly rental value is taken before tax and national insurance, making electric vehicles more accessible and affordable. This will help to reduce Scope 3 emissions,” Pringle adds, in reference to the emissions indirectly generated through a firm’s supply chain.
By installing new infrastructure, such as rapid charge points, the UK government hopes to make long-distance EV driving more attractive.
Elaine Pringle,
head of fleet management, Scottish Water
This sentiment of getting ahead of the green game has been echoed by other large British companies too. According to David Landy, head of fleet at the UK’s biggest parcel delivery company, Evri, there was no legal requirement for his company to adopt greener fleets and EVs. Rather, he says, this was more of a cultural shift within Evri itself, starting with their ParcelShop network – places where customers can send, collect and return parcels as easily as if they were going to their local corner shops. “First and foremost, there was no legal obligation to go electric,” Landy explains. “It was purely Evri wanting to start its low carbon journey. We’ve electrified vans within our ParcelShop network, and this is in the 3.5 tonne range. We also have 450 vans of our own that sit within that same community of vehicles, 168 of which are electric.” With almost two-fifths of Evri’s urban delivery vehicles responsible for operating more local urban routes now running on electricity, that is a considerable commitment to reducing the company’s emissions. But why not take the plunge and electrify the entire fleet? The answer, Landy says, is because there’s no sensible “big bang” option for most corporate needs.
“In order to achieve our target to remove all petrol and diesel cars from our fleet by 2025, we moved to an EV only car policy in 2021.”
Elaine Pringle £2.8bn UK Government 28
The UK government support package for EVs.
“It’s kind of like a gradual phase out,” Landy explains, drawing attention to his company’s deal with Mercedes-Benz to purchase a blend of diesel-powered vehicles as well as EVs, with the diesel vehicles phased out as new EVs and the next generation of technology become available. “To go big bang would be very challenging,” he stresses. Scottish Water, on the other hand, is on track to meet their extremely ambitious 2025 targets. “In order to achieve our target to remove all petrol and diesel cars from our fleet by 2025, we moved to an EV only car policy in 2021,” Pringle says. “We also implemented
Long wait for heavy freight? All the same, there is clearly a world of difference between smaller EVs, such as cars and vans, and the types of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) required for longer distance trucking. According to a 2017 white paper on zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles, published by the International Council on Clean Transportation, decarbonising the freight sector would require “sustained and extensive infrastructure investments by government and industry”.
And that makes sense. The kind of battery sizes and hydrogen fuel cells required to power such gargantuan vehicles, as well as to shift their loads, are not technologies that are either accessible or cheap. Companies looking to electrify their HGV fleets are therefore likely going to have to wait until the technology becomes more widely available and fits their economic models.
In the meantime, Evri has been relying on biomethane for its heavy goods fleet, with over half of their tractor units running on the fuel – a number that Landy says was doubled last year. “As far as heavy goods go, electrification isn’t quite there yet to give you the range and payloads that you actually need,” he explains. “We think biomethane is going to be good for a few years yet, and then that would be our stepping stone to whatever the [EV] technology will be.” Looking to the future, Evri expects that the technologies involved in HGV fleet electrification will likely be based on hydrogen fuel cell technology, and, for that reason, sees a big role for private capital to play a part – as well as scope for government intervention. “I think that we all see that private investment will be what generates the infrastructure,” Landy says. “But I would like to see some government intervention give a proper kickstart to this. However, I think we will get there under our own steam [without government assistance].”
While the technology to move away from biomethane may not be there just yet, HGV electrification is not being ignored, and indeed is being actively tackled by numerous manufacturers. That includes trailblazing EV giants like Tesla, which introduced a concept for a Class 8 heavy goods vehicle in 2017. While the so-called Tesla Semi has yet to go into mass production, it is surely only a matter of time before the technology, government encouragement and private sector will all synergise to create a greener, zero carbon emission future for all. ●
Finance Director Europe /
www.financedirectoreurope.com
Scharfsinn/
Shutterstock.com; Scottish Water
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