TWO thirds of small businesses predict their fleets will be fully electric within the next 20 years, with 50% expecting this to happen in half that time, global data shows.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi LCV business commissioned a survey to gain insight into thousands of small business owners and decision makers globally and found that business owners or decision-makers consider environmental sustainability of high importance. 

This comes at a time when automakers are increasing their efforts to respond to a growing customer need for sustainable vehicles, as businesses prepare for tighter emissions regulations and seek ways to address climate change.

This trend towards electrification was reflected in Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi LCV business’ latest sales results, as Renault’s European leadership of EV vans (46.2% market share) contributed to a 13.5% year-on-year growth of light commercial vehicles.

The LCV business’ combined sales, which includes trucks, vans and frame-based SUVs, reached almost 2 million units, the highest sales totals in the organisation’s history.

Groupe Renault has announced that 100% of its vans will be electrified by 2022. The Nissan e-NV200 small all-electric van is seeing a significant upswing in demand.

In 2018, production was up by 50% compared to the previous year to reach a total of 6,000 units. Mitsubishi offers the MINICAB MiEV van in Japan as well as commercial versions of the Outlander PHEV in some global markets.

This latest research has shown that the higher the turnover of the company and the bigger the fleet, the more important sustainability is to them.

Ashwani Gupta, Senior Vice President of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi LCV business, said: “These results show that the electrification of fleets is increasingly on the minds of our customers – not just for the financial efficiencies that EVs can deliver, but because environmental sustainability is clearly crucial to the future of their businesses.

“I’m impressed at how optimistic these fleet managers are about the speed in which their vehicles will be fully electrified.”

Connectivity will be most key to success from a logistics perspective, according to a fifth of the business leaders surveyed. 8 Other business owners believe automation will play the biggest role in their future success (14%).9  

In terms of an organisation’s willingness to adopt new technologies, more than a third (35%) said business efficiencies are the main reason for investing in new tech within their fleet, 21% said that cost saving drives their decisions, and 14% highlighted their desire to be more sustainable.

 

 

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