Key Considerations: Delivering And Collecting Electric Vehicles
Company cars and commercial vehicles will account for 80% of electric vehicle uptake by 2025. Fleet owners and retailers should be thinking ahead to what this means for vehicle logistics.
Initiatives such as the Road-To-Zero plan are increasing the speed of the UK’s transition to EVs. It is being reported that the Government will bring forward the ban of petrol vehicle sales to 2030 in an Autumn statement this year.
The increasing share of sales for EVs will be reflected in the Fleet sector, with 400,000 vehicles forecast to be purchased annually by fleets by 2025.
Drawing on our experience of delivering thousands of electric vehicles to date, we’d like to highlight some key considerations that fleet managers and dealers should be making when it comes to delivering and collecting electric vehicles:
#1 Electric vehicles can be driven!
Our experience is that decision-makers are too quick to assume that all EVs must be transported. With mileage ranges ever increasing, it is an increasingly low-risk option to drive EVs, rather than transport them. Most leasing driven mileage SLAs (typically 100 miles), for example, are well within the range of an EV near full charge.
#2 Electric vehicles are heavy
EVs are significantly heavier than their fossil-fueled counterparts. This has implications for transported delivery, where a larger Transporter will be required to ensure it has the correct payload. This is both more expensive and less flexible as there are fewer such trucks available.
#3 Driving is the environmentally responsible thing to do
Even if you don’t prioritise environmental issues, the receiving customer probably does, given their choice of vehicle. Delivering an EV on the back of a Diesel truck sets the wrong first impression and releases unnecessary emissions.
#4 However, drivers need to be trained in handing over electric vehicles
The customer will likely be very excited by the novelty of driving their new EV - for most, it will be the first they have owned. Delivery drivers need to ensure they have both the knowledge of EVs (e.g. where the spare charging cable is) and the enthusiasm to give the right customer experience. Having a traditional petrol head talking about the difficulty in finding a charging point en-route won’t go down well!
In summary, Engineius’ in-house view is that there are many merits to having a drive-first policy for electric vehicle movements. We also run EV-specific training modules with our drivers to ensure the end customer gets a great first impression with their new vehicle.
If you would like to find out more about electric vehicle delivery and collection, please get in touch with us.