Written evidence from Day’s Rental (ELV0021)

Call for Evidence

The UK has seen BEV’s for a while, and in 2011 the Nissan Leaf made its debut in the UK marketplace, which began the drive towards a greener future.  Fast forward to 2023 and we are now seeing large strides in vehicle manufacturers developing and bringing to the market an increasing number of EV Cars and catching up slowly we see commercials. 

So, how do I see progress from Rental companies’ viewpoint?  Honestly, it is slow – a lot slower than I would have thought with so much emphasis on pushing the green issue to generate a positive future for the generations yet to come.  We initiated a campaign to purchase BEV cars and LCV’s alike, thinking the UK was ready, thinking that government agencies and council authorities would all jump at the opportunity to move away from Diesel (very high polluter in NOX, not necessarily in CO2) to a greener energy, but in the last 12 months we have seen a massive ‘stall effect’.  Personally, I drive an EV and have done for approaching 2 years and I think that everyone needs to have the experience, but there are some, in fact quite a few that would not look to experience the new revolution, but in fact stick to their principles and remain in ICE.  Discussions around £p per kW will always be there and how presently driving an ICE and refuelling is cheaper than using a Bev, plus the time it takes to re-charge.

Others will deter over the time it takes recharge and if there is a queue (which often is the case now with more EV’s on the road, a what seems fewer available chargers), they will laugh as it takes minutes to refuel, rather than up to an hour plus the additional waiting time to get on to the charger, if spaces are not there.  Some will also say that the CO2 generated in the battery production versus the whole life of the EV is far more than an ICE.

But where does that leave us today?  My opinion remains unchanged as I do believe that in 20-30 years which would ‘hopefully’ see predominantly EV’s on the roads, however I feel that garages will continue to sell fossil fuels for many years, as there is profited to be made.  Maybe my opinion is a little ‘sci-fi’ but this future is achievable as technology keeps evolving, battery ranges are increasing (and with blade technology becoming safer also) and once the development costs are accrued, we should see smaller vehicles costing less but still having a decent real-world range.

Professionally, we are now seeing a slump in demand so much so, we have recently had to cancel our EV car and LCV orders.  Both Council authorities and Government seem unwilling to take an EV car over an ICE, so we are seeing depot stocks of under-utilised EV cars and commercial vehicles.  The problems seem to be two-fold:

• Rental Costs       Due to the initial purchase costs, the rental rates are higher than that of the ICE and as companies/government are having budgets stripped, it is all down to cost, and an ICE is cheaper to rent than a BEV
• Recharging          Unlike Fuel stations selling diesel and petrol the charging stations are fewer in numbers, and certain areas are void or if they are available (due to power being available), they are slow chargers meaning stays of over an hour, which is not good for business.

We find people reluctant to drive them, as they still have ‘range anxiety’ even though the average ‘real-world’ ranges are around 200 miles.

This view is one that I am finding, as people in my organisation look to me to help and guidance with all PHEV and BEV’s.  I think it is the future however other peoples views differ whilst some are sitting on the fence waiting to see if Hydrogen is the new future.