Renault Head of Light Commercial Vehicles Heinz-Jürgen Löw has added to calls for more to be done to accelerate the take-up of electric vehicles in the LCV sector.

Launching the new range of Renault medium electric vans, the Trafic, Goelette and Estafette E-Tech, at the CV Show in Birmingham (story here), Löw left onlookers in no doubt as to the challenges facing the industry in coming years, stating that the environment the industry operates in is getting more complex by the day.

“Safety and regulations are tightening fast across Europe,” Löw said, adding; “right now there are more than 320 low emission zones across European cities, that’s an increase of 40% compared to 2019 and this is just the beginning – more than 500 zones are already in the pipeline and by 2030 at least 35 zero-emission zones are expected. That number will keep climbing as cities strive to have cleaner and better air.”

Looking at the reasons that EV take-up is not happening at a fast enough rate, Löw argued that for all professional customers the total cost of ownership of a vehicle is a key decision criteria when buying; “they won’t switch to electric vehicles unless two things are in place – competitively priced green energy and a comprehensive charging infrastructure. Without both, buying habits won’t change fast enough, and there is no way we will meet the targets.”

Last-mile leaders

Despite these issues Löw believes that while electric vehicle adoption has not reached full speed the shift is happening, driven by last-mile delivery which he described as one of the fastest-evolving transport sectors in Europe. “In 2023 last-mile business in Europe reached a 30 billion Euro turnover, and it’s not slowing down. (It has a) solid 10% compound annual growth and we are forecasting 30-40% growth every year within the electric van segment in Europe until 2030.”

In his keynote speech to CV show attendees Mike Hawes, CEO of the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders, added to earlier calls for improved EV infrastructure by emphasising that the importance of decarbonising commercial vehicles cannot be understated.

“The CV sector represents 14% of vehicles on the road, but 36% of all UK road transport emissions,” Hawes said, adding; “To address climate change we need to transition the CV sector – its carbon footprint is equivalent to that of Sweden, Ireland or New Zealand.”

Hawes pointed out that time is not on the industry’s side; “It is 10 years to 2035 when sales of new ICE vans will be banned – in a purchasing cycle that is equivalent to tomorrow and so the transition has to be accelerated.”

He argued that infrastructure remains arguably the biggest barrier to EV take-up – all commercial vehicle depots in the country need to be connected for EV vehicles, but while every operator is considering, planning issues and other delays are slowing the process.”

Commercial vehicle specific charging infrastructure at strategic points on the national road network is another major issue, Hawes displaying a map that showed four such dedicated charging facilities in the entire Midlands of the UK. “This actually is better than two years ago when there was one – but four is nowhere near the pace of change we have to deliver,” he said.

“If you are connecting a motorway service area for cars, do it once, connect it so you have sufficient capacity to install good connections for vans, for HGVs, and all other vehicles,” Hawes added.

He also highlighted energy costs in the UK, by far the biggest issue raised by fleets hesitating over switching to electric; “We pay 60% more on average for energy compared to across Europe. We can’t make a compelling case for change with such costs.”

Speed of change

Speaking directly to Business Vans, Löw said that the pace of electrification is accelerating. “Last year in all of Europe EVs were 6.3% of vehicles, this year there has been a steep increase, we are at 9.9% – small figures but a steep increase. “Next year is may be 30, 40% but will it be enough? I don’t know.”

He emphasised that to business customers, buying a vehicle to earn revenue for their business, the total cost of ownership remains the critical factor. “At the end of the day an LCV is the ideal vehicle to electrify because 80% of customers are doing only 80 to 130 miles a day,” he said.

He agreed that the industry needed to be able to better make potential customers understand the advantages of electric, saying; “we have homework to do.”

Renault UK Managing Director Adam Wood added that increasing incidences of larger fleets switching to electric should aid the transition by encouraging small operators, saying; “Major fleets going to EV should increase confidence among more local fleets (to make the change – that’s part of the communication.”