UK cleaning firm Cleanology has taken delivery of its brand new all-electric London fleet, following a deal signed with Nissan last autumn.
Dominic Ponniah, Cleanology’s CEO, said: “This move reduces emissions and lowers our carbon footprint, significantly improving our environmental sustainability credentials, and the financial savings really add up. We save over £3000 a year per vehicle on fuel, there’s no road tax to pay, and there’s no London congestion charge, which saves close to another £5500 a year per vehicle. That’s a massive £8500 a year cost reduction per vehicle.
“There are so many advantages in swapping over to a fully electric fleet, from the environmental gains to costs savings, but it’s also about how our clients see us, and they expect us to demonstrate best practice in everything we do. It’s about taking a leadership position and setting a good example.”
Cleanology has managed the change to electric vehicles without any real issues, and the staff report that the vehicles are quieter and smoother to drive.
Dominic continued: “Five years ago, these vehicles simply did not have the range to make their use viable. Now that aspect is considerably improved, and I would recommend any business which operates vehicles across London 24/7 to look into changing over to electric.
“The range for cars has improved dramatically, but less so for vans and there is a lot less choice when it comes to commercial vehicles, which are still at an early stage of development. That seems odd to me, as commercial vehicles are on the road more than cars, although I can see that range and options are only going to get better.
“We recharge back at base, but also make use of street-side charging points across the city. In Westminster and central London there are plenty of charging points, but in the outskirts, while the infrastructure is still developing, many supermarkets provide a good service. One thing that makes it unnecessarily complicated is that there are too many different types of charger. When it comes to paying for parking, there are only one or two different apps, but when it comes to recharging there are around 10 different companies providing the service and we need accounts with all of them. If electric vehicles are really going to become the future, this needs to be simplified.”
Moving over to a fully electric fleet for its London operations reduces Cleanology’s emissions and lowers the company’s carbon footprint. Over 5000L of diesel per vehicle each year is saved – equal to 13.5 tonnes of CO2.
