In March this year we took advantage of a FREE Electric Van Trial offer from Kent County Council as part of their ‘KentRevs up for Cleaner Air’ promotion. The offer enables businesses in Kent to try a Renault Kangoo EV free for two months and even includes a FREE charger install from Ashford based Eco Electrical Contractors!
What’s not to like I hear you say?
Well, let’s start with the obvious negatives…
This particular vehicle has a limited range – 120 miles or so when driven normally and mainly in Eco mode, and is unable to take advantage of the ‘fast charge’ network of charging points currently rolling out – meaning it takes approximately 5-6 hours to charge from flat using its 7kW battery charger.
Driving outside of ‘ECO’ mode will increase the top speed significantly which you need for motorway driving for example, but also drain the battery much more quickly reducing the vehicle’s effective range.
This obviously has its draw backs if you are planning a longer journey unless you are prepared to spend an hour or so at a charge point to get an extra 20 miles range! Indeed ‘range anxiety’ is something all new EV owners have to get used to when pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
But that’s about all you have to worry about…
Living with an EV…
From our own experience and doing mainly ‘local’ trips with a maximum daily journey of around 50 miles, we’ve been really surprised at how easy the Kangoo is to live with. With a super panoramic view from the ‘goldfish bowl’ like front windscreen, apart from Drive, Reverse and Neutral there is no gear box to worry about – and just two pedals to operate like any other automatic.
Driving around town is where this EV really comes into its own… Quiet as you like with a noticeable ‘braking’ effect once you lift off the accelerator, you barely need to touch the brake pedal. But more interestingly you really do feel like this is a ‘guilt free’ driving experience which is the whole point really!
Charging up – as and when you need to – couldn’t be easier either, courtesy of charging point installers Eco Electrical Contractors. You just put it on the driveway and plug it in when you go to bed! In the morning you’ve got another 120 miles or so of range to enjoy – never needing to set foot in a petrol station and suffer the vagaries of fluctuating fuel prices ever again!
Case Study: J&J Systems IT MSP & Support Canterbury
Jacqui Offen from J&J Systems has been running a fleet of 4 Renault Zoe EV’s in van form for her support staff since they first came onto the market.
Averaging 12K miles/year and having had charge points installed at home for her staff convenience at the end of each day, Jacqui reckons it costs about 5p/mile to run each vehicle using a ‘green tariff’ overnight charge.
She has also had solar panels installed at the office with additional charge points – part funded using LoCASE grant funding, and so staff who are on the office support rota can also easily top up there using the company’s own renewable energy source!
According to Jacqui and apart from an annual service check, tyres and the usual sundries – running costs are minimal…
Again, range wise Jacqui reckons each charge is good for 120-160 miles in Eco mode, and with most customers within a roughly 60 mile radius from the Canterbury office this is sufficient. She also recommends accessing the FREE charging network at supermarkets e.g. during a lunchbreak if you need to charge on the go…
Jacqui had this to say; “3 years ago people were laughing at me driving my milk float. Now I’ve got people coming up to me to ask how it works for my business”.
Case Study: Eco Electrical Contractors
Paul Hooker, MD at Eco electrical contractors has also had one of the FREE vans on loan and had this to say…
“The EV van is a great tool, if as Martin has eluded to you can get past your range anxiety and manage the charging, there are a lot of positives and not very many negatives. Obviously these small EV Vans having a range of circa 100-130miles will not suit the company that needs to run tools and employees up and down to London from Kent and multiple drops in between or vice versa.
But for us as a company that is passionate about building lasting local B2B relationships it worked, and also for a company that really considers sustainability in everything we do, it fits, and as Martin mentioned, it feels good going green. All we need to do is ensure we power the coming EV fleet sustainably and keep of the grid as Jacqui Offen from J&J Systems is doing at their HQ, Kudos to them for that move!
To summarise, I think the Kent Revs is a great trial, it gave us the opportunity to quash the range anxiety and also its just good fun to drive, and we are including EV into our model moving forward. Assuming we can keep building our local B2B relationships and work together to be generally more sustainable as an industry I see no reason why we wouldn’t go EV – especially while fitting EV chargers in Kent why wouldn’t we use EV Vans!”
If you’d like to find out more about trying a free EV Van alternative in your business, contact the team at KentRevs on: REVS@csltd.org.uk, or visit the website at https://www.commercialservices.org.uk/our-news/kent-revs-up-for-cleaner-air to find out more.
This BLOG was written by Martin White, Founder of GreenBusinessHub.eco.