{"id":3322,"date":"2012-05-14T15:28:08","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T15:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2013-11-28T10:05:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T10:05:54","slug":"van-news-electric-vans-in-business-market-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/3322","title":{"rendered":"Van News: Electric Vans In Business & Market News"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Gas put an OEM electric van on the road, Volkswagen van sales hit new highs and the Berlingo scores another repeat customer fleet refresh deal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

OEM Electric Vans For British Gas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Nissan

A Nissan NV200 electric van being is being trialled by British Gas<\/p><\/div>\n

British Gas has said that it will only consider buying OEM electric vans, not aftermarket conversions. Colin Marriott, general manager of the British Gas fleet was discussing the performance of a recent Nissan EV200 electric van trial when he confirmed that the utility company would only consider OEM choices:<\/p>\n

“Aftermarket conversions can interfere with a vehicle\u2019s reliability. Our engineers are only efficient if they are busy looking after customers. By choosing OEM products we can guarantee that if a problem occurs a vehicle is fixed quickly and efficiently”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a pretty sensible approach and one that is likely to be emulated by most other large fleets.<\/p>\n

Another benefit not mentioned by Marriott is that the risk of the aftermarket converter going bust is eliminated – a problem that affected the buyers of the Ford Transit Connect electric van recently, when its converter, Azure Dynamics, closed down<\/a>.<\/p>\n

British Gas has been testing out an electric version of the Nissan NV200<\/a>\u00a0at its Leicester<\/a> and Newbury<\/a> depots to assess which of its 14,000 drivers\u2019 daily travel patterns are most suited to an electric van\u2019s typical working range, including getting to and from work.<\/p>\n

Volkswagen Van Sales Up 6.1% On 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Volkswagen

L-R, Volkswagen Caddy, Amarok, Transporter & Crafter<\/p><\/div>\n

Sales of Volkswagen light commercial vehicles are up 6.1% worldwide over the same period (Jan-Apr) last year.<\/p>\n

The German automaker has sold 174,200 LCVs so far in 2012, up from 164,200 in 2011. Unsurprisingly, Germany was the highest volume European market for VW, with customer deliveries up 9.8% to 39,600 so far this year.<\/p>\n

However, Eastern Europe was the biggest grower, with deliveries up a massive 35% so far this year compared to the Jan-Apr 2011. Despite this, the total sold was only 13,700 – around a third of those sold in Germany.<\/p>\n

In total, sales of the Crafter (up 35.2%) and Amarok pickup (up 36.2%) showed the biggest growth, with sales of the more established T5 inching up by 3.5% and sales of the Caddy declining slightly by 0.2%. The T5 remains the biggest seller, with 52,700 units sold so far in 2012.<\/p>\n

Berlingo Wins Another Repeat Customer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Citroen

One of Hewer FM’s new Euro Citroen Berlingo vans<\/p><\/div>\n

Gloucester<\/a>-based Hewer Facilities Management has just taken delivery of 36 new Citro\u00ebn Berlingo vans as part of its latest fleet refresh deal.<\/p>\n

The new Euro 5 Berlingos will replace the company’s existing Euro 4 Berlingos, as\u00a0Robert Willmott, Hewer FM\u2019s Contract Manager, explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a long and successful operating experience with Berlingo vans, which now form the majority of our 65-strong fleet. As an environmentally conscious company, every fleet renewal time we carry out a comprehensive review to see whether there is a van that can beat the Berlingo.<\/p>\n

To date we have continued to acquire Berlingos because of their unbeatable combination of environmental, operational, financial and driver benefits. These latest Euro 5 Berlingos are nearly 10% more fuel efficient than the Euro 4 versions they replace and their CO2<\/sub> emissions are 13g\/km lower.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBerlingos also provide us with other cost savings and productivity benefits, as they are running on 30 per cent biodiesel fuel. Also, the standard fit Trafficmaster Smartnav satellite navigation system and Trackstar stolen vehicle tracking means we have achieved additional cost savings and lower insurance premiums.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The vans were supplied by\u00a0Citro\u00ebn Business Centre, Warners Citro\u00ebn of Cheltenham<\/a>, who arranged for a number of additions to enhance the Berlingo Enterprise\u2019s high level of standard equipment. In addition to the standard air conditioning, Bluetooth, reverse park sensors and a dual passenger seat, Hewer’s new vans have also been fitted with a full steel bulkhead, polypropylene load compartment lining, non-slip composite flooring and roof bars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest van news, including a big increase in Volkswagen global van sales, an OEM electric van for British Gas and another fleet renewal win for the new Euro 5 Citroen Berlingo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[50,384,249,874,1389],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3322"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3329,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions\/3329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}