Electric vans are a viable cleantech alternative

Now able to compete on range and price, electric vans are a cleantech alternative to diesel
Marc Zakian
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 September 2009 20.30 BST
I am cruising the outskirts of London in a vehicle that could turn white van drivers green. Green with envy, as a tank of diesel costs £100 compared with our £5 fill-up; and environmentally green because the van I am steering is electric.
The curved-nosed box-van can carry up to two tonnes (think Transit, but longer and taller). It is made by Modec, a Midlands-based company set up in 2004 by the former chairman of Manganese Bronze – makers of the iconic London taxi. After a £30m development, the Modec was launched in 2007.
Driving the Modec is a contradictory experience. Perched in its cabin, you command the road, and yet the ride is extraordinarily quiet; with none of the shake and rattle or the whiff of diesel of a traditional van – only the squeaks from the chassis and the beehive hum of the electric motor let you know you are driving. With no noise pollution or tailpipe emissions, the electric van should be the bright green future for commercial transport. But if the Zev (Zero Emission Vehicle) is to replace Britain's 3m diesel vans it will have to satisfy two demands: the distance it can travel on one charge, and its price.
Electric courier
"Range is an issue for our customers," explains George Smith, brand manager for Harris Van Centre who, after years of selling conventional trucks and vans, is convinced electric is the future. "But not as big an issue as you might think. When we first spoke to UPS about using electric vans on their courier routes in London, they looked at their mileage and worked out that the average distance travelled in the capital was 14 miles per day." Most commercial electric vehicles can cover about 100 miles on one six-hour charge.
So for door-to-door urban deliveries an electric Zev is a workable cleantech alternative. Tesco approached Modec in an initiative to reduce the company's global footprint, adding 15 Modec Zevs to its fleet. The courier company TNT has gone further, spending £7m on 100 seven-tonne electric vans from Smiths, Britain's largest and oldest electric vehicle maker. And by sourcing 20% of its electricity from renewables, TNT answers the charge that electric vehicles simply shift pollution from the road to the power station.
But while large companies can afford to invest in electric transport, the up-front cost is challenging for smaller businesses. At around £40,000, a Transit-size electric van is twice the price of a similar size diesel. And you will need a three-phase charging point to plug them into.
It is once the Zevs are on the road that savings are made. "We spend £25 a week charging an electric van, compared with £200 on a diesel equivalent," says Nick Murray, TNT's communications manager. "After three years an electric van works out cheaper than diesel."
As well as costing less in fuel, electric vans don't need an MOT, are zero-rated for road tax and have no oil or filters to change. And with only four moving parts in the engine – compared with more than 1,000 on an internal combustion engine – electric vehicles are cheaper to maintain and suffer fewer breakdowns.
The strongest financial incentive, however, is an emissions-based congestion charge. "If the government really wants people to stop using polluting vans," says Roger Atkins, Modec's sales director, "they just need to look at how the London congestion charge is an impetus for change. The exemption for electric vehicles represents an annual £2,000 incentive for Zevs."
So for short-haul delivery the electric van offers a cleantech solution. But what about the UK's 500,000 lorries? Last year, heavy goods vehicles covered 18bn miles on British roads, with a loaded articulated lorry averaging 6 to 8 miles a gallon. The rising cost of fuel has seen truck drivers blocking the roads in protest and consumers paying more for transport costs.
Long-haul solution
Although electric HGVs are starting to make an appearance – last May the port in Los Angeles started using electric trucks to move sea containers – they are short-range vehicles. Electric vans recharge on the move, generating power when the vehicle brakes and returning that power to the battery. So the stop/start rhythms of a delivery van are well-suited to electric power. Long-distance trucks drive for hours without stopping, way beyond the current 100- to 150-mile battery range.
One potential solution is already incorporated into the Modec van. The battery is exchangeable. This future-proofs the vehicle, so that as technology improves, vehicles can be retrofitted with the latest batteries. Currently this swap takes about 15 minutes. But if the exchange were speeded up, it would pave the way for a relay of "battery stations" around the country, with electric vans or trucks swapping spent batteries for charged ones, giving them an infinite range. This potential is being exploited by Project Better Place, who with Renault and Nissan are planning an electric car battery station network which they plan to deploy by 2011.
But Dan Jenkins, from Smiths Electric Vehicles, believes the eventual solution will be improved battery technology. "Lithium ion battery technology is only at the beginning of its performance curve," he stresses. "In the next few years we will see the range being extended to 200 miles and beyond. And in the long term, batteries using ultra-capacitors should mean you can fast-charge in minutes."
In the meantime, for the newly greened white van driver the Zev is good news. Goodbye to the bone-battering rattle of the diesel engine, and hello to the gearless, silent, stress-free world of the electric van.