Car makers’ well-documented struggles to hit this year’s ZEV mandate target has eclipsed that of another struggle: to hit an even tougher target for vans.
“Industry commentators focus heavily on cars, but it's really important that we support the commercial vehicle industry as well,” Lisa Brankin, head of the UK’s number-one van seller, Ford, told Autocar.
LCV makers’ target for 10% of their total this year to be EVs looks less onerous than the 22% share required for car makers. However, uptake of electric vans is way behind uptake of electric cars, at 4.8% after the first nine months, compared with 18%, according to the SMMT.
Unlike electric car buyers, electric van buyers are still helped by the UK government, its Plug-in Van Grant (PIVG) providing as much as £5000. But it’s still not moving the needle on sales, which actually decreased in the last four months to drop 9.5% in the first nine months.
Van makers say most electric van sales are driven by large fleets looking to fulfil ESG-focused targets for CO2 reduction. For example, Royal Mail already has the largest electric delivery fleet, at around 5000, and plans to add a further 2100 EVs in the next 12 months.
Interest for electric vans outside the big fleets is still low. “They compare the price of diesel and the price of electric. When they find a gap and on top of that have other questions to answer, then they don’t change,” Heinz-Jürgen Löw, head of Renault LCVs, told Autocar.
Renault studies show that range often isn’t a limiting factor; it’s just that there’s very little incentive to leap into the unknown for the vast majority of van buyers. Even the threat of penalties for staying with diesel power haven’t materialised.
“For many, many years, we were talking about city restrictions for ICE versions, but there aren’t many cities in Europe who really have done this,” said Löw.
Choice is getting better all the time. Market leader Stellantis for example sells EV versions of its compact, medium and large van ranges across all its LCV brands, including Vauxhall. The compact models, including the Vauxhall Combo Electric, Peugeot e-Partner and Citroën ë-Berlingo, are even made in the UK, at Ellesmere Port. Production of EV versions of medium vans such as the Vauxhall Vivaro are scheduled to start at Luton next year.
While Ford is still behind on its electric van target for the year, Stellantis is better placed. CEO Carlos Tavares even pitched to the UK government (both the previous Conservative administration and the current Labour one) to be able combine van emissions to help out the car ZEV mandate, which Tavares has strongly criticised.
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