RICHARD Chamberlain, new UK head of commercial vehicles at Fiat Professional, has admitted that electric Fiat LCVs in the Fiat Professional range could still be some way off.

Richard said Fiat Professional was working on some options in Italy, but whether they made market in the UK was down to the market being big enough and how much buyers are willing  to pay.

He went on to add: “In terms of cost of ownership – does it work? It is great having a headline vehicle and communicating about it, but is anyone going to buy any? Or is it just going to be token gestures?”

Also key in any UK sales decision is where is the government going to go, as Richard doesn’t believe we have a clear stance on that yet.

“There’s lots of noise about diesels at the moment, but at some point they’ve got to make a commitment and there will be a statement about where diesel gets quite clean. Certainly at Euro 6 level and beyond, the level of NOx and that is the issue, is very, very small.”

Certainly some clarification on this would bring back some stability to the market.

Finally another thing Richard thinks need consideration before electric Fiat Professional models could go on sale, is that if you put battery cells into a Ducato, you would change the payload, the capabilities and upweight the GVW of the vehicle.

“Then you’re into operator licences and things like that, so there needs to be lots of legislation changes about what’s going on in the industry, that will drive these alternative fuel solutions,” Chamberlain added.

“At the moment the information isn’t coming from the government suggesting what changes we need to see and make. We need to see that and a firm commitment on that and I don’t think we’ll get that until we Brexit if I’m honest.”