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If you missed the ‘Understanding how to transition to EVs’ event on 21 May in Cheshire there were some really interesting takeaways, here are some quick highlights.
Diane Miller
Ellesmere Port Plant Director
Stellantis
The Stellantis plant at Ellesmere Port is transitioning to an EV factory as part of a £130 million investment. The site traditionally manufactured Vauxhall cars such as the Astra, but has now switched to building electric vans, and it’s the company’s first all-electric vehicle factory in the UK, and in the world.
Batteries for the electric vans are assembled at the site, by highly trained employees in a new £27 million battery assembly shop. Stellantis has its own ship bringing parts to the factory, which docks just three miles away from the plant – and electric tugs are soon due to help the components get delivered all the way to the factory. This means that planes and 400 truck trailers are no longer needed to transport parts.
With help from its own renewable energy generation, the factory – which is due to celebrate its 60-year anniversary on 12 June – is on course to be carbon neutral by 2027. There are also plans for an ‘Electric Streets’ project.
Diane said that it’s disappointing that the end of sale date for new petrol and diesel cars and vans has been delayed from 2030 to 2035, but Stellantis will be moving ahead with its electrification plans for 2030 regardless.
Rachel Shorney
Strategic Optimisation Team Manager
SP Energy Networks
Rachel Shorney explained how SP Energy Networks is investing in the network to support the UK’s move to net zero. The headline is that businesses should share their decarbonisation plans as early as possible to ensure that the SP Energy Networks can plan for and accommodate their energy requirements for the future. Significant projects can have long lead times, worsened by global events that are creating supply chain issues.
To connect a new EV charging hub, a new transformer may be needed. Due to demand globally, with all countries moving towards net zero, and developments such as the war in Ukraine, the lead time to source and install a new transformer has risen from around two and a half years to five years, and is currently around six to seven years. Costs have also risen; a new primary substation is now likely to cost around £2-£3 million, and to take 2-3 years to build.
Rachel suggested that the move to net zero offers wide-ranging career opportunities for anyone due to enter the jobs market in the coming years.
If you’re a business, then you’ll need to reduce your carbon emissions – either by leading on this yourself, or by being forced down this route by your customers at some stage.
If deliveries come to your business by diesel trucks, this will have an impact on your ‘Scope 3’ carbon emissions (the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by a company). Which is why the Farrall’s Group is transitioning to electric heavy goods vehicles. Matthew Farrall said that there’s been a long wait to take delivery of a DAF XP electric truck, and when it arrives, it will be primarily used for local deliveries around the Cheshire area; a factor being that although the public charging infrastructure for cars is now well developed around the UK, it’s virtually non-existent for trucks at the moment.
Transitioning an organisation’s cars and vans to electric is more straightforward than a truck fleet, and this can help to reduce a company’s carbon footprint. Richard Lawton from DriveElectric explained how salary sacrifice can allow employees of an organisation to save up to 40% on an EV. However, although EVs have zero tailpipe emissions, there are still emissions associated with charging an EV. DriveElectric Plus can help reduce the carbon emission associated with charging an EV by up to 89%.
To help meet customer demands for lowering carbon, Greville Kelly described how Groundwork has fully-funded grants to help businesses in the Cheshire area reduce their carbon emissions.
Greg Watson from EA Technology talked about how the company had installed workplace charging, which has encouraged members of staff to switch to EVs, but interestingly also said that some people had experienced ‘technophobia’ when faced with driving a Tesla, which has virtually all its car controls on a central touchscreen.
David Thornton gave an update on how Cheshire West and Chester Council has secured £2m from the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund to install around 600 chargers over the next five years, primarily in council car parks. Richard Mallender from the Energy Saving Trust explained how the EST is supporting other local authorities around the UK with LEVI. Chris Everitt from Radius Charge stressed that installing workplace chargepoints doesn’t have to be an over-complex, overwhelming experience.
Thanks for the support for this Cheshire West and Chester Council event, with exhibitors organised by Let’s Experience Electric, from West Cheshire & North Wales Chamber of Commerce, Stellantis, Energy Saving Trust, SP Energy Networks, Groundwork, EA Technology, Radius Charge and Let’s Talk Business.
The event featured the biggest ever display of electric vehicles in Cheshire.
Other exhibitors on hand to help with switching to electric and reducing emissions included Char.gy, Connected Energy, Connected Kerb, DriveElectric, E.ON Drive, Health Box, Joju Solar, Swansway Fleet, TB Electrics and Trojan Energy.
Event delegates received a free downloadable Electric Vehicle Business Toolkit, providing essential information for organisations about EVs and charging.
The ‘Understanding how to transition to Electric Vehicles’ event on Tuesday 21 May 2024 was run by Cheshire West and Chester Council in order to support businesses to transition to EVs, and to provide an update about Cheshire West and Chester Council’s LEVI (Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) charging network.
Electric vehicles at the event, organised by Let’s Experience Electric, were supplied by BYD Chester, Cheshire Oaks Hyundai, Genesis, Halliwell Jones, Lindop Toyota Queensferry, Lookers Vauxhall, M53 Ford, Swansway Peugeot, Tesla Chester, Wrexham Volkswagen and Volkswagen Van Centre Wrexham.
