For a start, the inaugural FIA Formula E racing series will kick off this autumn. It will see electrically powered cars capable of hitting 60mph in just three seconds and reaching 140mph, compete in a race series around the world. Meanwhile, in Formula 1, the new season’s cars feature hybrid technology that should enable them to complete a gruelling race on just 100kg of fuel. If ever there was a barometer of how far electric vehicle technology has come along in recent years, this is it.
Of course the average print firm won’t be pushing its vehicles to quite the same extent. But cutting edge motorsport technology will eventually filter down to the more prosaic world of electric and hybrid production cars and vans, which thankfully, is getting a lot more diverse.
“The number of electric cars has increased rapidly since 2011,” says Jonathan Visscher of the Society of Motor Manufactures & Traders (SMMT). “Back then there were only six or seven vehicles on the market, all of them in the supermini class. Now, there are upwards of 17, right up to full-size family cars, and we’re still only in the early adopter stage.”
Until recently, the electric car had been something of a joke – the dinky G-Wiz, while a common site around London, didn’t exactly scream sex appeal. But now, Tesla, the US electric car outfit founded by maverick billionaire Elon Musk, is coming to the UK, bringing luxury vehicles capable of serious speed and refinement with it. Elsewhere there are diverse new entrants to the UK market from the likes of Volkswagen, with the e-Up!, and BMW with its i8.
E-enthusiast
Michael Todd of Nottinghamshire-based trade print outfit RCS has already put a deposit down for a Tesla Model S, which has a 300-mile range and will hit 60mph in a shade over four seconds. He’s not just an early adopter of electric vehicles among printers, he was one of the very first people in the UK to make the transition. “I bought my first electric car in 1998, as soon as I returned from a holiday on a French island where there was a fleet of electric Peugeot 106 cars available for hire,” he recalls. “I fell in love with them and on my return I searched for one of the just 200-such cars imported into the UK. I’ve been driving electric ever since.”
Todd wanted RCS’s fleet to incorporate electric vehicles a long time ago, but had to wait for the technology to catch up. In fact, the first two electric Nissan Leafs that the company bought were direct from Japan, two years before they hit UK showrooms last year. But he didn’t stop there.
In 2012, RCS became the first private company in the UK to install a rapid charging station for electric cars on its premises. “Sometimes I use my car to visit clients in the day and I got fed up of getting back to RCS and having to wait for a few hours for my car to be sufficiently charged to get home. With the rapid charger, anyone – it is open to all comers – can visit RCS and charge up for free in 20 minutes.”
Todd has switched other companies on to electric cars too. “Several of our print resellers have gone on to buy their own electric cars, having tried driving one of ours,” he says.
The economics certainly seem compelling. Drivers pay £20 per year for the use of a card, which permits them to use the charging stations liberally sprinkled around most of the UK (all of which can be viewed on zap-map.com) free of charge. Home charging costs around 1p a mile. There is also a 0% Benefit in Kind rate on company car tax until 2015, and most are exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty.
“We take out a contract hire on behalf of our employees and they sacrifice £350 of their salary,” explains Todd. “The actual hit to their pay packets is about £200 after tax and National Insurance. If they were spending more than £50 per week on fuel then they effectively get their cars for free.”
Of course the real elephant in the room when it comes to electric cars is range – or rather, lack of it. Put simply, going long distances in electric cars isn’t as straightforward as travelling in a non-electric car or hybrid – the main players in the marketplace manage anything from 60 to 100 miles from a full charge, according to consumer group Which?.
Charging itself is a potential issue too – vehicles take up to eight hours to reach full capacity without the use of a rapid charging station, which usually means charging overnight. And when the temperature drops outside, so does the battery life, as electric batteries are susceptible to cold. And while pure electric cars emit zero emissions, that power has to come from somewhere.
However, RCS’s Todd is adamant that the vehicles are up to the task. “Everyone will home in on range but I think they are wrong,” he argues. “Everyone in the company who uses an electric car uses it to commute to work, predominantly. If they want to use their car for travel all around the UK then that’s not a problem either. A journey of 260 miles will need a full charge on departure, one 20 minute break en-route and then a charge at the destination.”
Range and upfront costs do still seem to be preventing the electric car going truly mainstream for the time being, though SMMT’s Visscher reckons that the humble van might well present the best opportunities for using electric vehicles.
“A lot of private owners are put off by electric because of the range limitations – once in a while, they will have to go on a long journey which an electric car might not be cut out to do,” he says. “However, take a business like the Post Office – there aren’t too many issues with the weight of the load. They can pick up from base, deliver a lot of drops in a small area and return to be charged overnight.”
Mail mover
One printer which is already using electric vehicles to this effect is Bath-based print-and-post outfit CFH. It delivers to locations in Bristol and Bath with bikes, but two stripped-out Nissan Leafs are used to get the post to depots. “The Leaf is perfectly suitable for what we’re moving at the moment,” says CFH Docmail managing director Dave Broadway, who also has a Tesla on order.
There is funding available for businesses and private users who want to join the electric revolution: the government’s plug-in van grant has offered businesses up to 20% of a vehicle’s value, but as of December 2013 only 404 businesses had taken advantage of it. The question of range and choice, it seems, is still putting businesses off.
However, the technology is progressing at a rapid rate – at the recent Geneva Motor Show, Volkswagen revealed that it is testing a battery “three or four times as powerful” as ones currently on the market. Elsewhere, the 900bhp Quant E- Sportlimousine concept offered a tantalising glimpse at what electric cars could one day be capable of.
So maybe it’s finally time to start taking the electric vehicle seriously after all.
Switched on – the cars and vans making waves in the electric marketplace
Nissan e-NV200
Price From £30,000
Range Around 100 miles
Motor 80kWh electric
This van shares a powertrain with the Japanese firm’s Leaf supermini and will go on sale later this year. It will be trialled by British Gas, so you’ll be seeing plenty of them on the road.
Renault Zoe
Price From £18,443
Range Around 90 miles
Motor 65kWh electric
While the Leaf was the first mass-market pure electric car on sale in the UK, the Zoe is much cheaper; it undercuts the Nissan significantly. Renault also offers the Kangoo ZE, the class-leading electric van.
BMW i3
Price From £25,680
Motor 22kWh electric with optional 650cc petrol engine
The i3 is arguably the most futuristic car on the road, made of reinforced carbon fibre. If you need more range, there’s a version available with a dinky two-cylinder engine bolted on to help with ‘range anxiety’.
Vauxhall Ampera
Price From £33,750
Range 30 miles on battery, 300 miles (claimed) combined
Motor 120kWh electric with additional 1.4-litre petrol engine
The electric car for the sales rep who racks up serious motorway mileage, the Ampera is primarily powered by an electric motor, which has a range of 25-230 miles. It also has a four-cylinder petrol powerplant to call upon when the battery runs flat.
Tesla Model S
Price From £49,900
Range 300 miles
Motor 60kWh (85kWh with optional supercharger)
This upstart from California has garnered rave reviews, and has gone a long way to change the perception of electric cars. Set to become the definitive choice for the environmentally-conscious exec about town.
