Preparation in a chaotic world

Grahame Neagus, Head of LCV, Renault Trucks UK & Ireland

Read the press in 2023 and you will see that the is world harnessing electromobility across many sectors and now across an increasing array of vehicle weight categories, too. Against a backdrop of decades of diesel technology and usage, we are heading into a decade of total change as conventional ICE powertrains are gradually phased out. The elephant in the room is infrastructure and the continuity of power to meet the new rising demand.

Recent reports in the media highlight the huge growth in EV cars, which has happened at a faster rate than infrastructure provision, meaning that quick and effective public charging is not always the experience of owners, coupled with patchy charger availability.

For commercial vehicles, increased ranges of electric LCVs and HGVs means that most return-to-base or multi depot based operators will not require public charging. For these operators, the challenge is ensuring that you are planning sufficiently with your infrastructure partner, and that the DNO local infrastructure is in place and working before your vehicles arrive. As we know, lead times on vehicles from all OEMs have been challenging in recent months, but some forward-thinking clients have used this time to start talking, procuring and installing the necessary infrastructure into their operations ahead of new electric vehicles arriving. This whole transition, especially in those operations who have made a definite commitment in volume, is not just a five minute exercise and can take up to twelve months or more from initial discussions to being fully operational, taking into account possible civil works and negotiations with internal stakeholders and landlords.

The Renault Trucks approach is to work collaboratively with operators and introduce third-party expert partners at appropriate stages. At every Renault Trucks dealer across the UK, customers are supported throughout their entire journey to switch to electric by our fully trained Energy Transition Specialists (ETS). We specify a vehicle to suit the application and then introduce charging partners who will assess the energy available on site for charging the first, and hopefully subsequent electric vehicles. After this assessment we will recommend charging solutions which reflect the immediate and ongoing operational needs of the customer. This is a vitally important part of the whole ‘journey to electric’ jigsaw but the numbers of operators who are only just starting out is in some cases, frighteningly low depending on the sector. Yet as more towns and cities become ever more stringent on what types of commercial vehicles they allow into the urban environments, the need to get on board with electromobility is getting ever more of a necessity.