Late last year the Technology Strategy Board announced the 8 winners of its Electric and Ultra Low Emission Vehicle Demonstrator Competition. The lucky winners will receive government funding to trial ULEVs over the next year in locations throughout the UK. The schemes will operate in areas such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle and a quick browse of the list shows that the winners are all located in urban settings.
A question that has been slightly glossed over is whether or not urban locations are the best venues for EV/ULEV trials and eventual roll out. Certainly these areas hold many advantages. Urban dwellers predominately do not have extensive daily range requirements so individuals operating a limited range vehicle (such as an EV) would not have to worry about running out of power. Urban areas have much greater access to the infrastructure necessary to operate these vehicles such as charging points. Collecting the data for the trail will be easier as the users will be situated in a more concentrated area. The early adopters of EV/ULEVs are likely to be urban dwellers themselves who are perceived as being environmentally conscious, socially aspiring and affluent individuals.
On the flip side to this is the argument that by targeting EVs at these urban markets the government will struggle to put themselves on a path to meet their carbon reduction commitments up to 2050. Urban dwellers usually have limited personal mobility requirements and, though this may make them more suitable for the range limitations of EVs, it will not cause a significant decrease in vehicle transport emissions if this consumer segment were to adopt EVs. There are two possible alternatives that offer to address this problem.
Firstly EV vehicle trails could be aimed at the family vehicle and company market. These are the market segments that have the most intensive vehicle mile requirements and thus shifting these segments to EV/ULEVs will make the greatest contribution to the emission reduction targets. Now the company market is already incorporated into many of the vehicle trails underway with many public and private sectors organisations involved. The family market appears to have been left out of the trail but this is the segment that contributes the most towards vehicle emissions and so their omission could be a glaring oversight. This is the market segment the Government will need to convince to purchase EV/ULEVs, not just as their secondary car for auxiliary tasks but as their primary use vehicle, if they are to have any hope of achieving their climate change objectives.
Secondly the rural market does not seem to have been considered in these trails. Understandably, this market is relatively small when compared to the large urban market but it perhaps is the most vulnerable in the current climate. These communities already pay a high premium to access conventional fuel and often have to drive large distances just to fill up (thus wasting money and creating additional emissions). The implications of Peak Oil will hit these communities the hardest therefore it is important that the government attempts to insulate these areas by diversifying the energy supply away for conventional oil to other alternatives. Now I don’t know the whole picture here, important questions would need to be answered such as is the rural electricity grid capable of charging a number of EVs without overloading and can rural residents complete their usual daily activities in a range of fewer than 100 miles.
With 8 projects receiving funding from the Technology Strategy Board none will be focused on rural applications or the suburban market. In my eyes these are two of the market segments that are of high priority in effectively rolling out EV/ULEVs and are also the segments that we know the least about. With 8 urban trials on the table it is highly likely there will be a great deal of duplication of output, surely it would be sensible to diversify one or two of the trails to look at a different dimension of this emerging market to ensure that the best output is generated?
No comments:
Post a Comment