Van fleets warn of electric vehicle battery problems

The fleet association has previously spoken out about widespread issues with electric vans losing charge on the 12v battery when the vehicle is left unused for a couple of weeks.

AFP chair Paul Hollick warned that members were now reporting electric vans being delivered in this state and having to reject them, which he said was completely unacceptable.

It’s unavoidably having an impact on the appetite of some fleets to electrify their vans,

he said.

The handful of manufacturers involved – and this affects several models – have been quite different in their responses with some being faster to work towards a solution than others.

Affected vehicles are impossible to start or recharge and have to be transported via trailer to a dealership.

Hollick said members generally accepted that electric van adoption meant they were close to the cutting edge of using new technology, with the possibility of teething issues.

But he added there was a general feeling that the 12v battery technology being used ‘lags some distance behind the advances in electric vehicle batteries that have been made in recent years and a large perceived difference between the extremes of how much work these manufacturers appear to be putting into resolving the issue’.

The most commonly suggested solution by manufacturers was revised software that would preserve the 12v battery for longer.

Hollick said:

Some manufacturers are telling us that the new software is in progress and could be here in a matter of weeks or months, while others are much vaguer.
Also, it’s worth underlining that even where a fix is available, we are being told that the problem is still likely to occur, it will just take longer to happen, which again underlines the weakness of the underlying technology.

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