300-mile test for electric Smart car aims to highlight fleet viability
Electric vehicles may have been left on the showroom shelf by the majority of fleets so far, but one man has made it his mission to state their claim as a serious and viable contender for a place in your fleet.
Craig Pullen of fleet services provider RunYourCars plans to highlight how far charging points infrastructure has come in such a short space of time by driving a 300-mile round trip in a 100% electric Smart Fortwo.
Setting off from RunYourCars HQ in Henley-in-Arden on 11 November, Craig will cruise through Oxford and London with the help of charging stations on the M40 (Oxford Services), M25 (South Mimms) and M1 (Newport Pagnell Services).
After totting up over 5,000 miles in the past six months, Mr Pullen believes EVs are severely underestimated.
“I have successfully used the Smart electric car locally, and thought that the advent of the ‘Electric Highway’ would provide a good opportunity to disprove some of the myths associated with electric vehicles – notably range anxiety,” he says.
Careful usage
On a full charge, the electric variant of Smart’s Fortwo carries enough juice for an 80 mile journey and Craig hopes to dispel range anxiety and other common obstacles facing EVs.
“We receive a lot of enquiries about electric vehicles and my experiment will further add to our pool of knowledge and experience,” he adds. “We believe that electric cars and vans have a place on a vehicle fleet, but usage has to be managed.
“Use of the Smart is delivering significant fuel savings and reducing our carbon footprint, but Run Your Cars is flexible enough to realise that it is not the end of the road for the combustion engine. We believe the two power sources can operate side-by-side within most fleet operations.”
Mike Cheshire of Ecotricity – a provider of charging stations emitting wind-generated energy, hopes that the jaunt will show people that electric vehicles are not only green but also increasingly practical.
“It costs just over 1p per mile to travel in an electric vehicle, compared to around 15p per mile in a petrol car,” adds Mike.
“Ecotricity fully agrees with Craig and his team that it’s time for a change in attitude towards transport in Britain. It is great to see him spreading the message that this change doesn’t have to mean a sacrifice in cost or convenience.”
Mr Pullen is hoping to raise money for automotive industry charity BEN during the trip. Donate what you can at justgiving.com/CraigPullenElectric.
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