Demand for electric vans continues to lag “far behind” the levels required to meet the ZEV Mandate.
That’s the finding of the BVRLA’s latest annual Road to Zero Report, which said a raft of negative factors were playing against electric van sales.
“For most operators, electric vans still do not make clear economic sense, with higher upfront costs and uncertain residual values undermining confidence.
“Questions over vehicle suitability add further doubt about whether current products can meet day to day operational needs.
“Infrastructure challenges add more cost and risk, including limited suitable van friendly public charging, few pre bookable slots, patchy payment options and lost productivity while vehicles are charging,” it said.
Where incentives are in place, particularly salary sacrifice and company car schemes, leasing overall, the report found that progress on the UK’s Road to Zero is uneven, with clear leaders and laggards emerging across the EV transition.
Toby Poston, BVRLA chief executive, said: “The UK does not have one EV transition. It has multiple transitions moving at different speeds.
“Cars are ahead of vans. Fleet is ahead of private retail. New vehicles are ahead of used.
“Home charging is ahead of public charging. Large corporates are ahead of SMEs. Leasing is ahead of rental. Urban use cases are ahead of rural and heavy payload operations.
“This disparity in progress is a warning light that the EV ecosystem has challenges outside of the comfort zone of company provided cars and home charging.
“The transition gives us many reasons to be cheerful, but we need to see focus shift to the areas that desperately need it.”
“The sharpest challenge is in vans, where the transition is struggling to build momentum. Operators face a limited choice of suitable vehicles, a significant cost gap compared with diesel, and a charging network that is often at odds with how vans are used in the real world. For too many fleets, the operational case for switching remains difficult to make.”
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