Over the past few years, DNOs have been working in the EV space to understand future customer needs and potential network impacts, to ultimately develop new technical and commercial solutions enabling future EV uptake in a timely and cost-effective manner. While the needs of residential customers and large commercial fleets in the EV transition is already being studied in ongoing projects, SMEs may have different needs, and they may struggle with transport electrification if there is no tailored strategy to address the specific challenges they may experience.
Objectives
1. Get to know the SME customer group and segment it into transportation-relevant categories. Understand their technical, operational and commercial specific needs;
2. Investigate the interests and needs of SME categories in transitioning to EVs;
3. Engage with SMEs to establish an efficient communication structure with each SME segment;
4. Investigate the potential impacts on the network of SME transport electrification; and
Investigate the potential network solutions to facilitate EV transition specific to SME segments.
Learnings
Outcomes
White Van Plan has delivered several outputs with key insights and outcomes.
Project Outputs:
· Literature review of over 80 documents, analysis of a fleet dataset with over 27,000 SMEs, online survey responses from more than 1,200 SMEs, and over 80 engagements with key external stakeholders
· Delivered a national webinar in collaboration with the Federation of Small Businesses
· Developed the first of its kind segmentation of SMEs based on vehicle usage
· Launched an Business EV Hub to follow through on the commitment to enable their EV transition - https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/electricity/business-electric-vehicle-hub
· Produced a market insights report to understand the SME touchpoints in their journey to acquire electric vehicles, to identify key interaction points for DNOs to streamline electric vehicle connection.
· Published all project documents on the project page of the UK Power Networks website - https://innovation.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/projects/white-van-plan/
Project Outcomes:
· Developed a comprehensive understanding of the challenges, needs, and solutions to support SMEs for each of the SME archetypes identified using the first of its kind segmentation
· Built a robust model of SMEs fleet sizes, composition, parking location, usage patterns, and vehicle type
· Prioritised the key challenges facing SMEs and actions that DNOs can take to support their fleet electrification
· Identified the key drivers for SMEs to switch to electric vehicle by investigating their key characteristics and attitudes towards fleet electronification, categorising each by the degree of control DNOs have to influence
Assessed the penetration of EVs by SME segment, fleet composition growth rates, charging demands, locations, and investigated the potential network impacts
Lessons Learnt
Some of the key lessons learned throughout the White Van Plan project are listed below:
1. SMEs are a significantly hard-to-reach customer group. To build relationships with them it is best to go through their representative organisations and host and deliver workshops collaboratively. This has the potential to unlock deeper connections and opportunities to actively interact with SMEs.
2. A complex research project should strive to deliver outcomes and insights in a digestible format. White Van Plan trialled this with summary slide decks, such as the Final summary report published on the UK Power Networks website: https://innovation.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Final-Report-January-2022.pdf
3. Fleets are leading the transition. SMEs with fleets are planning their EV transition years in advance. Most businesses
approach leasing companies when the need arises – within six months of the lease expiring, or when the vehicle reaches end of life.
4. Micro and small businesses will often seek advice from their accountant when considering EV transition. Uncertainty
of EV maintenance requirements is a key risk for SMEs who need to carefully plan their cash flow and investments.
5. SMEs often use the second hand market but there is growing interest in lease opportunities. Reasons include: tax
benefits, lack of availability of vehicles to purchase and flexibility to keep up with technology advancements, and improving battery capacity.
Electric van interest is growing but tentatively. SMEs tend to use smaller vans under two tonnes. New electric models are increasingly coming on the market but they are still expensive. Electric van range
