One Housing Group

Improving environmental credentials by focusing on air quality

All content on this case study was created prior to the acquisition of EB Charging by Blink Charging.

Saving over £200,000 on Fleet costs with Electric Blue

This case study demonstrates how we took One Housing Group on a journey to meet their budgetary and environmental objectives, by improving air quality through fleet electrification.

About One Housing

One Housing Direct (OHD) are the maintenance fleet for One Housing Group, operating a fleet of Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) primarily in London, comprising mostly of Ford Transit Custom 290 Eco-Tech. Vehicles typically operate between 6am and 8pm Monday to Friday, with drivers taking and storing their vehicles at home.

The Challenge

The objectives for OHD to achieve were:

1. To reduce fleet operational costs, particularly vehicle tax and fuel.
2. To simultaneously improve the organisation’s environment credentials, with a particular focus on air quality.

Our Solution

Electric Blue used real world data from telematics installed in the OHD vehicles and modelled how electric vehicles (EVs) would have performed under the same conditions. Based on the data gathered, we recommended a programme of conversion to EVs.

This recommendation was based on the potential fuel and operational savings that EVs offer, which took into consideration the current operation and duty cycle of the existing fleet, as well as the performance capabilities of EVs and chargers currently on the market.

The results of the analysis showed that a high proportion (76%) of daily routes could have been completed in EVs with excess battery capacity, not requiring any additional charging. Due to evidenced feasibility in converting, along with the improvements in air quality and the savings in fleet costs, we recommended that OHD move into the Stage 2 – Trial phase, to be followed by Stage 3 – Roll-out phase, when the operational programme permits it. Electric Blue will fully manage the trial, including the provision of all services, infrastructure and vehicles.

• Vehicles – We suggest two EVs – Nissan eNV200 or equivalent
• Duration – One month
• Location – Central London based OHG engineers
• Charging Infrastructure – We will install suitable fast chargers (7kW)
• Cost – TBC (subject to final specification), but estimated at circa £5,000

What was achieved

The total savings for a full fleet conversion to EVs were assessed at £207,267 per annum, including fuel, service, maintenance and Road Fund Licence.

OHD is undergoing a three to four year vehicle replacement cycle; once the fleet is fully converted, annual emissions savings are calculated to be 184 tonnes. By using EVs powered by renewable energy, upstream emissions from power generation are also reduced, meaning that fleet electrification impacts positively on the environment at every stage.

Next steps

Following the recommendations in their report, One Housing Group are now awaiting the launch of the 40kW Nissan e-NV200 in May/June 2018, to begin the Stage 2 trial. The feasibility model shows that while the 24kW battery pack would meet the needs of a reasonable portion of the fleet, delaying the trial in order to utilise the 40kW battery pack, would significantly increase EV adoption.