It’s not an easy time to own a business which relies on a vehicle fleet to carry out its operations, with fuel prices continuing to spiral out of control.
Recent research by MoneySupermarket suggests that 5% of drivers have already been forced off the road by the rising motoring costs. The potential impact that this has on businesses is therefore painfully clear, and is likely to be a large contributor towards the current economic woes and high unemployment rates.
However, Renault may well have the answer to this problem with it becoming the first major manufacturer to mass produce an all-electric commercial vehicle.
Potential fuel savings
Let’s firstly start by looking at the potential fuel cost savings which are available to Kangoo owners over a conventional Ford Transit. Renault estimates that it would cost on average just £2 to completely recharge the Kangoo on a 6-8 hour overnight charge so that it is capable of completing its full 106 mile range the next day.
Even if we assume that the van is used every day (a total of 38,690 miles), then it would only cost £730 per year in recharging costs.
Now let’s compare this with a Ford Transit taking into consideration the average fuel consumption figure of the diesel 2.2 litre Transit which is 39.2 mpg. It would therefore cost a company about £6,725 per year with diesel prices at their current rate in order to complete the same number of miles.
This works out at a total saving of just under £6,000 per vehicle every year. For a company operating with a fleet of ten vehicles, this obviously works out at a total saving of £60,000 per annum.
Other savings
The other savings available through opting for a Kangoo rather than Transit are less substantial, but none the less worthwhile mentioning.
MoneySupermarket recently reported that some insurance companies will offer discounts of up to 5% off the total cost of premiums to owners of environmentally friendly vehicles. With insurance provider Autonet recently reporting that the average van insurance policy featuring a driver under the age of 23 costs around £2,550, this would work out at a total annual saving of £255 per vehicle and £2,550 for a company with a fleet of ten.
Road tax is another area of substantial saving, with the Kangoo E.V. being exempt from the £215 road tax charge applied to the Ford Transit. This equates into a further £2,150 per year saving for a company with 10 vehicles.
Another area of saving which is slightly more difficult to quantify is congestion charging. Any business which is forced to enter an area covered by congestion charging will be forced to fork out £10 per vehicle, per day; an amount which soon adds up. Environmentally friendly vehicles such as the Kangoo are exempt from such charging; a feature which will obviously be more beneficial to companies who operate in areas affected by this.
Drawbacks
Adoption of electric vehicles has traditionally been hampered by high initial purchase costs. However, this is not the case with the Kangoo which costs almost £4,000 less to buy initially than a Ford Transit.
However, this doesn’t not include the battery hire fees; which totals £62 per month. This works out at a staggering £744 per year, per vehicle. Again, for a company with 10 vehicles this totals £7,440 per annum but is only a minor expenditure in light of the potential £60,000 per year annual fuel saving.
It should be warned that the £62 hire fee does place a 9,000 per year mileage cap on the owner before additional fees begin to be applied, which will probably be in the form of a cost per mile. Even if this works out at 5p per mile, it will still only cost £1,485 per year for each vehicle to complete the 38,690 mileage stated previously.
The 106 mile range between charges however is something which cannot be dismissed so easily, as it does limit companies to journeys of no more than 53 miles away from base in ideal conditions. Renault itself admits that this limitation will render the Kangoo impractical for some companies, but has defended its decision by claiming that 70% of van owners complete fewer than 60 miles per day.
Light at the end of the tunnel
The Renault Kangoo E.V. obviously isn’t practical for everyone, but if Renault assumption that 70% of van owners only complete 60 miles per day is taken at face value, then the Kangoo will actually be a realistic proposition for the majority.
A potential annual saving of £55,775 for a company with ten vehicles is something not to be dismissed, and could be the difference between profit and loss; survival and redundancies.
The key to any successful product is that it must offer customers a key advantage which no one else can offer and there can be no doubts that Renault has achieved this with the Kangoo E.V.; becoming the first manufacturer to make a financially viable electric vehicle which offers a true running cost saving rather than being a mere marketing gimmick.
