This study was commissioned by West Sussex County Council in order to assess the economic and environmental performance of introducing electrical vehicles in its fleet. Electrical vehicles are typically described as environmentally friendly, expensive to buy, but cheap to run. Based on the data collected over a 4-month trial period, the report confirms this statement, although the extent of the cost difference between electrical and conventional vehicles is not as important as often portrayed. Car utilisation is a major variable when computing a lifecycle cost, and this is especially so in the operating lease context used by the Council to source its cars.
The conclusion is that the electrical vehicles (Renault Zoe) introduced in the fleet reduce lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions by half when compared with conventional cars. The total cost of the electrical vehicles is 70% higher than conventional ones but this could be reduced to 38% through increased utilisation. The evaluation framework of Granoskii et al. (2016) is customised to the case of the fleet and used to conclude that overall, electrical vehicles are the best, especially if the UK electricity portfolio continue to increase its renewable energy content.
Issues are raised with the charging regimes of the electrical vehicles though. Charging tends to only happen during peak demand time and the long periods of time during which cars are connected to the charging station could be detrimental to battery life.