Fleets begin to plug-in

The Energy Saving Trust has been working with 20 organisations across the country to help them understand the business benefits of plug-in vehicles through its Plugged-in Fleets Initiative (PIFI)

The initial aim of the Plugged-in Fleets Initiative (PIFI), funded by Transport for London and the Department for Transport and delivered by Energy Saving Trust in partnership with EDF Energy and Route Monkey, was to support fleets in their decision making as to whether plug-in vehicle acquisition is appropriate for them. A second objective was to pull together all the lessons and knowledge from the programme and inform the wider fleet market.

We worked with a diverse range of fleets, in the public and private sector, with a good representation of different vehicle types and needs. Participating fleets included Boots UK, WM Morrisons, Network Rail, the Environment Agency, Surrey County Council, Southern Health NHS Trust and Schneider Electric. Each fleet received tailored analysis based on their real life vehicle data and usage, and we made recommendations as to where in plug-in vehicles could make good business sense. Each company had to ensure that they were engaged in the programme at the highest levels (ie. CEO or director level).

The process
Each business received a review delivered through a three step process. Firstly, the Energy Saving Trust fleet consultant would consider the vehicle requirements of the company, such as mileage, vehicle type, vehicle numbers, loading requirements etc.
    
Stage two involved a whole life cost comparison between current diesel and petrol models compared to appropriate plug-in equivalents. We considered plug in hybrids and extended range EVs such as the Vauxhall Ampera and Prius Plug-in, as well as pure electric vehicles - both cars and vans. Each fleet was also offered a site survey and infrastructure review from our project partner EDF Energy, and where appropriate route scheduling analysis from Route Monkey.
  
There were a number of clear cases where plug-in vehicles make good economic sense - both in and outside of London. For example we looked at the whole life costs of operating pure electric cars versus diesel for Forrest Construction based in Preston. They asked us to consider a pure electric pool car to replace some of their grey fleet travelling between their two sites. We knew the regular journeys between the sites would not amount to much more than 60 miles per day, so there was a real option for a pure electric vehicle to suit these trips. Comparing a Peugeot iOn (pure EV) to a Ford Fiesta the company would save 5ppm. If they compared the cost of running an iOn to the 45ppm HMRC rate for grey fleet the saving would be almost 20ppm. Forrest also asked us to consider the whole life costs for a Vauxhall Ampera if they were to offer this as a part of their company car choice list. The saving to the employee of running an Ampera compared to their most popular executive company car was £10,000 over three years, this is largely down to the government plug-in car grant, company car tax savings, and low fuel costs. The more the car is used on electric rather than its petrol engine, the more money the employee and employer will save.

The case for electric
During the PIFI process, we found that some fleets could potentially replace their whole fleet with pure EVs. Urban Planters’ drive cycle is urban with Congestion Charge costs on most days, and a daily duty cycle that is compatible with the range of a light duty plug-in van. Our analysis showed that operating a pure EV van over five years, Urban Planters would save 13ppm. Charging en route fits nicely into their daily office visits where the vehicle used is typically parked for one hour.
    
The face to face meeting at the start of the PIFI project answered all Urban Planters’ questions well ahead of the detailed drive cycle analysis. At the end of our first meeting, Urban Planters concluded they could purchase a Kangoo ZE immediately, and did just that. The analysis later confirmed the benefit in ppm, and when the cost saving was added in for Plugged-in Places charging infrastructure funding on top of parking, the only conclusion they could make was to replace all their vans with PIV when they are due for replacement.

Where to re-charge?
Infrastructure analysis was critical to the success of the project. Our fleet participants were generally very keen to understand the infrastructure requirements of adopting electric vehicles. Our infrastructure partner, EDF Energy, presented the safety, practical and cost implications of installing recharging equipment. It was incredibly important that we were able to provide this as a part of the PIFI review to help answer questions regarding infrastructure and prevent any surprises once a company invests in the vehicles.
    
EDF Energy surveyed 32 sites during the programme, and all sites had sufficient incoming electricity supply to support electric vehicles. This proves the accessibility of the technology. Fleets we worked with had a range of needs in terms of where recharging would and could take place. For example, Rydon’s maintenance drivers take their vans home at night, but as many of them live with no E
F off‑street parking, it wouldn’t be feasible for them to charge their vehicles at home. However, Rydon are exploring the opportunity of using on street charge posts or working with the social housing sites they maintain to install charge posts, so their employees can re-charge electric vans while completing their site visits.  

For companies whose drivers are able to take vehicles home and re-charge them over night, this raised another interesting challenge. Who owns the asset? If a business invests in electric recharging infrastructure at their employees’ homes, it was considered a big investment if staff retention levels are low. For companies with high staff retention, the low running costs of plug-in vehicles may justify making the investment in at domestic charging equipment.
    
The benefit of doing so allows companies whose drivers take vehicles home to stick to existing driver patterns and behaviour.

When we set out we were looking for situations where predictable mileages of approximately 80 miles per day would allow low cost charging at the depot or at home. However, in a number of cases we realised that on route charging throughout the day would be possible and could increase pure EV range significantly to up to 120 miles per day. If rapid chargers were used this would be considerably greater.  

Getting the most from your fleet
More often than we expected we worked with fleets that were not fully optimising their existing vehicles. There were instances where vehicles had surprisingly low mileages and it was clear that there would be a benefit of combining vehicle roles. OMM Business Solutions were one of the participating PIFI fleets. They operate three of the same 3.5 tonne vans to deliver office stationery. Initially we understood there was not a like for like EV replacement that they were happy with, however, talking with OMM it emerged there was the potential to implement an EV solution.    

This would be by adopting a smaller and lower cost Kangoo ZE which could fit with the payload needs for many deliveries but that did not always meet occasional large load volume requirements, and to use their existing 3.5 tonne vehicle only when larger loads had to be delivered. This has the potential to change the pence per mile rates for the majority of deliveries from 75ppm to around 25ppm.
    
We would see this open minded approach to mixing technologies as the way not only to lower emissions but also improve the efficiency of a fleet.
    
Route Monkey’s route scheduling software can help fleets to maximise their mileage. Where it was clear a PIFI fleet would benefit from this, Route Monkey would provide analysis. The software focuses on getting the best from the vehicle in terms of energy consumption, and then planning in charging opportunities, whether they are the main overnight charge or a short top up charge during the working day, to ensure the duty cycle can be met or even extended.

The future is electric
2013/14 is going to see an exciting range of new electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles coming onto the market. If there were instances where there wasn’t a model that is currently suitable we would suggest near to market models to look out for. We would also demonstrate what scenarios the fleet may wish to look out for over the next year or so, which would increase the attractiveness of plug-in vehicles. The most obvious one being rising fuel costs.    

How often drivers need to charge their electric vehicle depends largely on the number of miles they drive, but also how they drive. The Energy Saving Trust has worked with a number of companies to train their staff how to maximise the range, through efficient driving techniques. After training the average increase in range was 20 per cent.
    
At the launch event, Norman Baker MP, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Transport, announced additional support for a further 100 fleets to receive a PIFI review.

Further information
The Plugged in Fleets Initiative
report can be downloaded at
 www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/pifi

If you would like to be one of
 the PIFI 100 then please contact 
Caroline.Watson@est.org.uk for further information or to express your interest.