Models available from major manufacturers are rated from around 50 to 125kWh, meaning that even the fastest will take around 40 minutes to charge from 10% to 80% – and it could be slower in real-world conditions.
Paul Hollick, chair at the AFP, said: “When it comes to tackling the reasons behind slow fleet adoption of electric vans, prominence has been given to issues of range and payload but there has been limited discussion of charging speeds. In fact, as discussed at a recent meeting of our megafleets committee, charging speeds tend to be a bigger real-world frustration. Having a driver sitting around for an hour while their van charges is expensive.
“If vans were capable of faster charging then, to a significant extent, other issues affecting them tend to become more manageable. For example, the negative impact of higher payloads on range becomes less important if you can recharge to 80% every 125 miles in 15 minutes.”
Hollick said there is a perception among AFP members that vans were being built with slower charging capabilities because manufacturers believed achieving the lowest possible purchase price was crucial. He added: “This misconception is understandable. However, the message that we are hearing from our members is that they would be willing to pay more for faster charging capacity. Over a typical six-year fleet lifecycle, the additional cost of a rapid charging van would be more than outweighed by increasing the availability of the driver.”
Chris Lipscomb, director of operations at Logistics UK, said: “Defects identified during an inspection can range from blown bulbs to more serious steering and braking defects, but they all have the potential to cause disruption if they need to be remedied when a vehicle should be operational.
“Operators are aware of their legal responsibilities regarding preventative maintenance, but the potential savings our research identifies show there is a financial business case for operating safe and roadworthy vehicles, alongside the operator’s legal and moral duty.”
Logistics UK’s latest Compliance Report 2025 highlighted improvements in maintenance standards over the last 15 years. The initial HGV failure rate fell from 32.4% in 2008/09 to 10.3% in 2024/25, while the final failure rate dropped from 17.7% to 6.9% over the same period.
Lipscomb added: “These positive trends in vehicle compliance show how seriously operators take their responsibilities and reflect a combination of cultural change and operational improvements as well as changes to regulatory requirements.
“In addition, the increased expectations of the DVSA have encouraged operators to adopt more proactive maintenance regimes.
“This has always been best practice within the industry but not only is preventative maintenance now an expectation, our research shows that it has the potential to save operators thousands of pounds.”
