GreenFleet

A six month trial of electric passenger cars in the North East of England resulted in 72 per cent of participants stating they would be happy to use an electric vehicle as their regular car.

Cenex announced the results of the trial, which aimed to study the integration of electric vehicles into fleets, with an emphasis on vehicle efficiency and performance.

Ten organisations took part, integrating one to four electric two-seater passenger Smart cars into their fleets and allowing qualitative and quantitative data to be collected.

Findings included that 88 per cent of fleet managers felt more positive about incorporating electric vehicles into fleets, 58 per cent of fleet users felt generally more positive about electric vehicles after the trial.

Also, ‘range anxiety' meant that 93 per cent of journeys started with over 50 per cent battery charge and that maximum journey length was 25 per cent of the typical vehicle range capability and test drivers and fleet users in the 20-30 age group experienced the highest opinion shift in favour of electric vehicle ownership.

The trial has shown that strong potential exists for fleet operators to be early adopters of electric vehicles.

Fleet managers highlighted main barriers to EV integration as purchase price and limited range.

The average range achievable from the two seater electric vehicles was 72.4 km emitting the equivalent of 81.4 gCO2/km when recharged with UK average grid mix electricity.

If charged with lower carbon sources of electricity, the vehicles achieve average equivalent emissions of 45.0 gCO2/km from Combined Heat and Power generation, and 0 gCO2/km from renewable electricity generation.

Chris Walsh, Head of Consultancy and Technical Support at Cenex said: "We predict that Government incentives to decarbonise the electricity network will coincide with the mass market introduction of electric vehicles, which offers an inherently low carbon future for EVs."

Further information:
Cenex