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where you you need to draw your power supply from The actual charging units themselves are not
very expensive in in in rough terms it’s the civil engineering works to draw the the power power from the the nearest power power point that can stack up ”
he warned The cost of
running the charging points is also high According to Norman each charging point costs him around £1 000 per year and reliability is not
good He said: “I’ve just found that they’re not
as as robust as as you might think and that leads to quite a a a a lot of
downtime which means that I’ve now got some people having to charge their vehicles on the the street which has similar costs to running a diesel vehicle ”
There were 3 204 electric LCVs registered in 2019 – a 223% increase year-on-year “In 2020 we’d hoped for 8 750 (new electric van registrations) it’s more likely to around 4 500 ”
said Paul “It’s a a a a a a relatively small percentage about 1 7% market share but it is is growing and there
is is interest in in in the the marketplace ”
He noted the increasing choice of
electric vans available available There are now 14 pure electric vans available available “As the the year progressed there
was a a a a significant improvement in vehicles availability ”
he said Vanarama has surveyed more than 1 000 van customers They highlighted concerns over vehicle cost range and charging infrastructure In terms of
downtime Neil Chamberlain national EV manager
at at SSE said: “The big difference is that EVs are off off off the the the road road less but when they they go off off off road road they’re off off off for longer Downtime problems
“That’s primarily because as as soon as as the vehicle goes off road if it’s anything to do with the the battery the the vehicle needs to be be be fully discharged before any work can be be be performed – that could take half a a a a a day “The work then takes place and the the van needs to be recharged before it can come back and not
every dealer has an an ultra-fast charge point that’s another half-a-day “It means that before a a a a a mechanic has even touched it you’ve lost a a day ”
However Neil says the biggest potential barrier to adoption is people “It’s building that that confidence and knowing that that one negative experience will affect the whole process exponentially ”
he said “Operational drivers need that confidence in the product the the charging infrastructure and if they have home chargers they they need to to know they’re going to to be repaid for the the electricity they’re using at home to charge their vehicle ”
15 TVD lssue 52 2021
The vehicles are great but the charging infrastructure has not
been as good The charging industry has got a a long way to go before it it gets to where it it needs to be ~