CLM has hosted an inaugural EV experience and education day involving Renault and Chargemaster.

The day was attended by fleet decision makers amongst CLM’s client base, and featured presentations from all areas of the industry.

Fleet managers were invited to test drive a number of electric vehicles, such as the Renault Zoe.

Renault UK’s manager leasing (South) and national fleet EV manager Claire Atkinson said:

“Many people of unaware of the problems posed by inner city pollution but 59% of people are living amid illegal pollution levels in the UK, and outdoor air pollution contributes towards 40,000 deaths a year in the UK.

“Ministers have been told that 60% of new cars must be electric by 2030 to meet emissions targets but general awareness is low. So EV education days like these with fleet managers are very valuable.”

Jonny Berry, Renault’s regional development manager EVs (South), told attendees that a breakthrough moment on whole life costs (WLC) had now been achieved between EVs and conventional internal combustion engined vehicles.

He compared the WLC of a Ford Connect TDCI with those of a Kangoo Z.E. over four years/30,000 miles per annum.

Over this period, the Connect had WLC of £23,187.36, while those of the Kangoo Z.E. were £19,024.80, a monetary saving of £4,162.56, plus a carbon saving of 28.89 tonnes of CO2.

For Chargemaster, EV experience centre partnership manager, Ben Grocott, said that there were now 14,348 chargepoints in the UK, increasing at the rate of 250 per month and making the UK one of the best places in Europe for public charging infrastructure.

He also described the different charging speeds of the chargers currently on the market, and said that homechargers typically charged at 3kw and took between six and 12 hours to recharge a typical EV.

Grocott said: “We wanted fleet managers to take away from the day just how easy it is to make the transition from diesel or petrol vehicles to EVs and how cost-effective it can be. Feedback we received was very positive.”

CLM’s managing director John Lawrence said: “Our thanks to both Renault UK and Chargemaster for taking part in our inaugural EV education experience for fleet customers.

“Our research has shown that many drivers still require extensive education on the various electric and hybrid powered vehicles on the market before sales start to accelerate towards Government targets.

“Increased education would undoubtedly help this process and this is where fleet management providers like ourselves have a clear role to play in providing our customers with detailed analysis of the options available.

“EV education days like this one can definitely help to achieve that objective and we plan to hold a number more in various parts of the country over the coming months.”

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