On Oct 12th Government Demonstrates how it’s “Road To Zero Strategy” (To lead the world in zero emission vehicle technology) … is A Road To Nowhere.

Bold assertions on the UK’s intentions and strategy for zero emission vehicles

Here are just a few extracts from the Prime Minister’s presentation:-

• “Through our modern Industrial Strategy, we are backing the industries and technologies of the future”.

• “How we accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles – and ensure cleaner air for all our people – is one of the most pressing issues in modern transport”.

• “That is why I have set this country an ambitious mission. To put the UK at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of zero-emission vehicles and for all new cars and vans to be, effectively, zero emission by 2040”.

• “Our Road to Zero Strategy is the most comprehensive plan globally – mapping out in detail how we will reach our target for all new cars and vans to be, effectively, zero emission by 2040 “.

Fast Forward >>  Just 4 Weeks Later … And it appears to be a totally different story, with a reverse on incentives to purchase plug-in cars? (Industry reaction Below)…

A lesson in:-

Sending the wrong message to confuse people concerned about air pollution, would-be electric car drivers and car manufacturers.

How ironic, (and confusing) that on the 11th October, just one month after making clear it’s commitment towards zero emission vehicles, the Government announced that the current cash incentives (available since 2011), to encourage people to buy electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles were to be slashed… How very dis-couraging,.. especially as it coincided with a 42,5% downturn in diesel car sales, talk about sending out the wrong message…  and if “The Road to Zero” is indeed a Strategy, what part of the master-plan does this support?

As if to make sense, or justify the removal of the retail subsidy and another month on … On November 9th, news was released stating that mileage records showed that many employees aren’t even charging the Plug-in hybrids, they were just being added to fleets due to the subsidy and tax perks on offer over ICE vehicles. This created the biggest markets for PHEVs in Europe, and added to the stress put on (mostly free) public-facing charging infrastructure. 

This could make some sense except for the fact that along with the complete removal of retail subsidy for PHEVs the subsidy for pure electric vehicles was also reduced by £1000… They missed a clear opportunity to demonstrate at least some grasp of coherent policy, why not simply take the £2,500 subsidy from the PHEV and further incentify pure electric vehicles by adding that to the existing £4,500, rather than cutting that to £3,500? This would also be more in line with World leaders in EV uptake Norway, who have a much higher uptake of BEVs than PHEVs.

More Incentives needed and More Infrastructure – (Not Less).

So what put the spark in Norway’s electric car revolution?

Norway offers some of the most generous range of subsidies in the World to boost electric vehicle uptake, so much so that last year more than half of new Norwegian car sales were electric or hybrid.

Norway not only encourages uptake of the purchase and ownership of electric vehicles it discourages petrol and diesel cars. Norway also realises that the initial price can remain the biggest hurdle.

Cost Incentives

A VW e-Golf gets imported to Norway at around £8,500 dearer than a petrol equivalent. After the Norwegian tax incentives have worked their magic the e-Golf works out around £2,500 cheaper than the petrol – and what’s more – works out about £3000 per year less to run.

The end result of all this is the exponential adoption of plug-in vehicles…

Emulate What Works

So taking Norway as a successful working model, how can we in Britain accept Government policies that entirely conflict with this success, it confounds common sense for Theresa May to state in September: “We are taking significant strides forward. Our electric, UK-manufactured cars account for one-in-five sold in Europe”, and then, exactly one month later cut the retail incentives on the purchase price of electric vehicles in the UK, this hardly supports her claim “To put the UK at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of zero-emission vehicles.

A Road to Nowhere?

How can we reconcile taking “significant strides forward” and then effectively take a huge step back? There is absolutely no point in coming up with grand ’schemes’ such as “The Road to Zero Strategy” only to undermine them with almost immediate contradictory policies, steering us on a road to nowhere.

© 2018 Tim Scrafton (The Connect Consultancy)

Too Hot To Handle…

Just a short news item to warn people of the risks when using mode-2 charging cables with 13A plugs… especially when plugged into extension leads.

As most hybrid-plug-in cars are supplied only with the mode-2 cable, which has a 13A plug and is typically 5m in length, drivers frequently resort to using extension sockets – due to the fact that domestic power sockets are often more than the 5m cable distance from where their plug-in car is parked.

Using a 13A domestic socket and especially an extension lead to charge an electric car is not recommended…

This can result in over-heated plugs and sockets and potentially hazardous outcomes.

The solution?

Take advantage while you can of the £500 (EVHS – Home Charge) and £300 per-socket WCS (Work Charge) OLEV grants through APi Electrical and we’ll install either universal sockets or tethered charge-points with 4X faster (or more) charging capability – either option will provide SAFE fast charging for your plug-in cars.

2015 . . . To the present  – And future

After eight months in-depth research into the global EV market Api Electrical added EV charging services to it’s existing electrical contracting during 2015.

With our eye on other European countries, who were ahead of the UK in their EV markets and their infrastructure development –  we gained some insight to what the future might hold here in the UK >> Fast forward just a couple of years and things have moved on with some pace – With (Petrol Hybrid EV) PHEVs galore, new EV car manufacturers springing up out of nowhere and the legacy car makers announcing ambitious plans and budgets for new ranges of EV models, all supported by Government tax incentives and subsidised charging infrastructure for home and work – together with announcements of bans of internal combustion engined cars by as early as 2025 in Norway and Holland and 2040 in France and the UK…the EV revolution is now most definitely well on it’s way.

What Happened…

Following on from 2015 the growth in EV chargepoint installations grew exponentially as new waves of hybrid plug-ins came to market to join the existing BEVs by Tesla, BMW, Nissan and Renault.

During 2016 conventional car manufacturers finally woke up to the reality of the highly aspirational threat from Tesla, with their existing luxury brand of super-car-fast EV ‘Model S’ limousines and their release of the new SUV ‘Model X’ and launch of the next mainstream ‘Model 3’.

Nissan / Renault and BMW continued to provide urban battery driven cars

Nissan, with their successful Leaf, BMW ( i3) – Renault ( Zoe ) were already tempting people with their more affordable urban BEVs which they continue to improve with face-lifted designs and by increasing battery densities for increased range.

WCS Grant – (WorkPlace Charge Scheme) Introduced

As if employee tax benefits weren’t enough – In November 2016 – the Work Charge grant scheme (WCS) was added to the existing £500 Home Charge grants available (EVHS) – to encourage businesses to install charging infrastructure, with a generous £300 grant subsidy (per socket) up to £6000 or 20 sockets.

Businesses have responded extremely well to this scheme, as they don’t even need to have a plug-in to qualify, but they can plan for their present or future plug-in charging requirements with the aid of the voucher-based government grant, that is redeemed by the installers against the costs.

The Rise of the PHEVs …

Mitsubishi had launched the Outlander PHEV in 2014 which by 2016 had proved to be a major seller and continues to be so, incentified by the low Co2 BIK tax benefits, providing the equivalent to a significant wage rise, this was (and still is!) a welcome bonus to many running a fleet car, after years of wage caps and austerity.

Other major car brands followed the successful Outlander PHEV trend, with a raft of plug-in hybrid derivatives of their existing models from Volvo, Mercedes and BMW, realising that there needed to be a bridge between their existing legacy cars and the BEVs.

The legacy car makers – even if they were able – could not afford to cannibalise their own industry overnight with all that entails, including the maintenance that is fundamental to operating ICE cars.

The ‘Game-Changer’

It was as if the major car makers had been caught standing still …  in the headlights of the newly launched SUV Tesla Model X with it’s revolutionary ‘falcon-wing’ doors and decided they had to do something to bridge the gap by ‘e’-volving the stock they already had into PHEVs – and – sooner rather than later …

The proliferation of PHEVs has in many ways invigorated the UK plug-in market, and there is no doubt that the BIK tax incentives are the driving force behind the uptake of PHEVs, (our own clients tell us this) but the PHEVs are providing a useful introduction to the plug-in concept and creating the much needed time in order to take on Tesla’s mainstream Model 3 – with accelerated BEV programmes for all-new Battery Electric Vehicles.

Graphic artists must never have been so busy at BMW, Mercedes and VW judging by the regular artist impressions of the new vehicles to come.

While Tesla’s Model X provided a luxury hyper-car performance SUV – The ‘Game-Changer’ finally arrived with the launch of Tesla’s much awaited mainstream, sub $30,000 Model 3 which sold (via deposits) it’s full first year allocation of 500,000 (equivalent to global annual sales of the BMW 3 series) in little over a week – worth a staggering $15Bn, which made it the most successful product launch of anything in history.

2017 and Beyond ….

Looking further into the implementation of a wide range of factors – Electric vehicles now look on the brink of a major expansion in the UK and the rest of the World.

Mid-way through 2017 and Tesla’s Model 3 is preparing to trickle off the production lines – before ramping up gradually to full capacity production during 2018.

Volvo announced every one of its cars will be electric from 2019, shortly followed by Jaguar Land Rover, with Jaguar also unveiling it’s exciting all electric, SUV i-Pace, and Mercedes and Volkswagen publicising their forthcoming EV sub-brands, Mercedes EQ and VW i.d.

Exciting all-new EV brands such as Fisker, GSM, Lucid and Faraday Futures are just the start of the r-ev-olution to come, as the new cars shed the thousands of moving parts required to build an internal combustion engine, it enables silicon valley start ups and other innovators such as Dyson, Google and Apple to enter the e-mobility age.

This new demand for the ready supply of electricity as a fuel for e-mobility opens up further questions as to how we are to accommodate the extra charge points and demand placed on the already beleaguered grid.

New legislation: The Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Bill

New legislation: fuel stations and major retailers will have to install electric vehicle charge points

Public Charging Infrastructure – How much is needed?

Public Charging Infrastructure is already struggling to keep up with the rate of EV uptake.

This was highlighted in the recent Queen’s Parliamentary Speech, announcing the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill, which commits the UK Government to provide electric charging facilities nationwide by making it mandatory to provide a new type of insurance to cover autonomous driving of vehicles and charging points at large retailers and petrol stations.

The ratio of available EV chargepoints to EV cars has widened substantially during 2016 – 2017, this is partly due to the large influx of plug-in hybrid vehicles, nevertheless it has become apparent that the need for more charge points is growing – to highlight this – There was a ratio of 0.78 cars to charge points at the end of 2016 this has quickly widened to 7.32 cars to each charge point during 2017 and this will continue to widen further unless a concerted effort is made to invest in far more public charging infrastructure.

Influx of new EV cars – Not on the horizon – approaching fast…

All the major car manufacturers have immediate plans to fund major expansions of pure battery driven vehicles, Volvo made a PR coup recently by announcing their policy to make all their cars from 2019 plug-in vehicles. Mercedes has ploughed £8.5Bn into their future EV plans with a totally new ‘EQ’ sub-brand, similar to BMW’s own ‘i’ series and VW is to replace all diesel with 30 new battery driven cars under a new ‘i.d’ moniker.

Tesla is out in front waiting to be caught, but that will take some doing if the sold-out (455,000 ordered) Model 3 is anything to go by…

The UK’s current best-selling EV the Nissan Leaf is also due it’s next generation model, it would appear the new EV cars will be arriving just as the momentum is supported by the new Government bill.

What share of the market do plug-in cars have?

It is quite clear that the numbers of plug-in cars is rapidly on the increase, now amounting to a record 4.2% share of all new vehicles registered in the UK, large companies that are committed to ‘go ultra low‘ such as Britvic have already demonstrated their green intentions, plug-in cars took up 5% of their 462 car fleet in 2016 and 12 months later this has grown to 35%.

Who will provide the charging infrastructure to meet the growing demand?

It is not just up to the Government to invest in the provision of the much needed growth of charging infrastructure, venues that can benefit by attracting new customers that previously would have stopped at petrol stations need to match the public sector and embrace the new e-mobility growth… so hotels, sports venues, leisure parks, pubs and restaurants can all gain new business and free exposure by adding their profile to the EV charging network.

Retail and Forecourt traders are just part of the equation, but as people’s habits are hard to change, petrol stations are a good start to resonate with motorists and will help to popularise the uptake of EVs. It would seem that petrol stations could still be selling “fuel” to their customers in an electric car future. Click Here to download the Go Ultra Low Fleet Guide to Plugin Vehicles (pdf source www.goultralow.com)

Time for EV drivers to be ‘seen to be green’.

If ultra-low emission vehicles could display the fact that they are greener – by wearing a new green registration plate – then this would demonstrate their green credentials to others and create instant awareness wherever the vehicles travel.

Green Plates have been used in Hungary since 2015

Green registration plates are now a familiar sight in Hungary on the streets of cities such as Budapest. Helping to popularise the cleaner form of transportation in cities is something that is important for the environment, especially in densely populated city areas.

Plug-in Hybrids look like their petrol and diesel equivalents

As the majority of plug-in cars on our roads are currently plug-in hybrid derivatives of existing, popular diesel and petrol cars such as BMW 330, Mercedes C350, VW Golf, Passat, Up! Mitsubishi Outlander, etc – etc, most people simply are not aware of the fact that there are actually lots of these green, clean cars already on the road.

Popularise adoption of EVs by helping them stand out

The wide-spread adoption of anything new requires firstly the early adopters, then as things evolve more and more people begin to feel comfortable with the idea for it to be accepted and become mainstream. We believe if the cars were ‘seen to be green’ with high visibility #greenplates fitted to ultra low emission vehicles, people will quickly become more aware of plug-in cars and they would then be far more receptive to the advances and advantages of electric vehicles, both in running costs and being kinder to the environment and in the wider interests of public health.

Disabled drivers display their badge in cars to access disabled parking facilities…

We already have systems to help prevent unauthorised use of disabled parking bays…  Of the main obstacles to the wider adoption of electric cars – the battery range – and the number of quality EV Charging points available for public charging, things are made even more difficult when ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle owners decide to park their cars in EV parking bays clearly intended, and needed for EV’s to be able to plug in.

Dim-Watts and ICE-Holes

We are clearly moving on from the current ‘ICE-Age’ to a new cleaner form of electric mobility and #green plates would help to prevent the unwarranted indiscretion and inconsiderate parking habits of some ICE drivers, who continually use available EV charging bays. Plug-in cars (especially 100% EV) require charging facilities. If the car does not have a #green plate to indicate the fact that it has the right to park in the designated bay, it would be highly visible and should incur a penalty as a deterrent.

Be Seen to be Green

So let’s start a campaign to be ‘seen to be green’ and help raise public awareness of the cleaner, greener transport that is already on our roads and help increase the numbers exponentially… all the way up to when ICE vehicles will be ultimately banned in 2040.

Join our campaign visit our Twitter profile and retweet the pinned tweet. #greenplates

Fisker EMotion Unveiled, with a 9 minute charge time.

On looks alone it would be a technical knockout

Two months ahead of schedule, Henrik Fisker revealed his amazing new EV, the all-new Fisker EMotion electric saloon,  which he says will be able to compete head to head..  and toe to toe..  with the likes of the Tesla Model S… On looks alone it would be a technical knockout for Fisker.

Henrik Fisker has already made his mark as an automotive designer with Tesla in earlier years and his new car design is a challenge not for just the likes of Tesla, but also Aston Martin (who are due to launch their own fully electric RapidE in 2017) and Porsche who will be bringing their electric Mission E to market around 2020.

Fisker are claiming a recharge time of 9 minutes and a range of 400 miles, both of which would be Industry-leading and the recharge time a seismic leap ahead compared to the best currently available, this is attributed to the Graphene super-capacitors used which enable electrons to travel faster and therefore allow a far quicker charge time, if the claims are achievable it appears lithium-ion may already becoming a dated power solution.