World’s biggest commercial electric vehicle project announced in UK

The world’s biggest trial of commercial electric vehicles (EVs) has been approved by UK energy regulator Ofgem, bringing together leading power, technology, fleet and transport companies to test and implement the best approaches to the EV rollout for commercial enterprises. With businesses buying 58 per cent of all new vehicles in the UK, it will be commercial vehicles that determine the speed of the transition to low-carbon transport.

This three-year innovation project will come up with practical ways of overcoming the up-front costs that are currently holding back many of the country’s biggest commercial vehicle operators from making the switch to EVs.

Led by Hitachi Vantara and UK Power Networks, the trial will see up to 3,000 EVs from Centrica, Uber and a large UK depot-based parcel carrier take to the road, supported by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, Hitachi Europe and Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions.

The project will deliver an end-to-end overview of what the switch to EVs means for the cables and substations that deliver electricity to the community, for the businesses that need to invest in new infrastructure, and for the end users that need to power their vehicles. It is intentionally vehicle agnostic and includes depot, home and on-the-road charging scenarios.

Fuente: Intelligent Transport, 03/12/2018

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