Government must “kickstart” fleet electric van adoption

Posted 24th January 2023

The AFP (Association of Fleet Professionals) believe that UK businesses need a financial incentive from the Government to kickstart the adoption of electric vans.

From talking to members, the AFP identified several challenges that businesses were facing with the introduction of electric vans. These challenges were causing objections from members to the electrifying of their fleet. Paul Hollick, chair at the industry body, said that some form of financial ‘carrot’ was required to play a similar role to that provided by low benefit-in-kind taxation for electric cars.

“Our feeling is that there is an assumption at government level that electric vans will follow roughly the same pattern as electric cars in terms of speed of adoption but given feedback from across our membership, we are highly doubtful that will prove correct,” Hollick stated.

“Many of these early adopter organisations have a corporate commitment to net zero and will effectively choose electric vans whatever the operational compromises encountered. However, others are proving less likely to be quite so determined with some having suspended electric van acquisition. That is why some form of incentive needs to be introduced simply to make tackling these problems worthwhile.”

Hollick said that the issues identified fell into the categories of operator and driver problems.

“Operators are reporting that charging infrastructure is often unsuitable for vans, AER rates that do not provide suitable levels of reimbursement, ongoing poor supply of vehicles, limited choice of model types, rising lease and purchase prices and, of course, dramatically increased charging costs. In some cases, fleets are reporting that electric van running costs are now higher than diesel. Many are also finding it difficult to install home chargers on a widespread basis for their drivers and are having to build charging into the working day, which causes obvious disruption.

“Additionally, van drivers are generally proving much more resistant to electrification than their car counterparts. Even if they are one of the 30% who are able to have a home charger, a significant proportion don’t want their work van parked on their drive overnight while it is plugged in. This means they are having to use public charging, which can create problems over fair AER reimbursement. It is certainly not unknown for drivers to attempt to hand back their electric van to their employer and demand a return to their diesel.

“All of these problems need to be taken into account before you even start looking at the core issues of range and payload. While newer designs coming to market are starting to overcome these objections to a greater or lesser extent, they remain fundamental issues for many operators who are considering electric van adoption.”

Hollick added that there would be limited future supply of electric vans into the second-hand market without widespread fleet first user adoption.

“Unless businesses very quickly begin to operate electric vans on a large scale, there will be no real used electrified light commercial vehicle market of which to speak by 2030, which will affect everything from long-term national targets for net zero to localised plans for increasingly strict clean air zones in cities.

“Our view is very much that the government needs to take some control of the situation and find a way to kickstart electric van adoption that will provide an incentive large enough to overcome this range of issues and bring about a sea change in what looks like an increasingly tepid market. There is a very real chance that only van fleets with a corporate commitment to net zero will become 100% electric this decade and an equally real possibility that many others will drag their heels and instead operate diesel for as long as possible.”

As members of AFP, ElectrAssure is excellently placed to understand and overcome the wider challenges of fleet management and putting an effective EV charging infrastructure in place. A reliable, scalable EV charging solution is critical to the successful electrification of your fleet. We can design, install and operate electric vehicle charging systems tailored to meet the needs of every type of business. Find out how, by getting in touch with us.