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The Business Motoring Week, June 01, 2018

In the Business Motoring Week, June 01, the editor reflects on the unstoppable rise of the SUV, how a new electric van entrant may disrupt the market, the start of Ford Business Week, and the rise of leasing in EVs, used cars and to SMEs in a report from Frost & Sullivan, which is holding its Intelligent Mobility conference in June – and to which Business Car Manager is the media partner
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1 June 2018

Citroen C5 Aircross SUVThe unstoppable rise of the SUV

Can nothing stop the switch to the SUV? Recently Citroen announced that it was entering the compact SUV sector – think Ford Kuga – with its brand new C5 Aircross SUV (pictured above). Already, this car has sold 40,000 units in China, says Citroen, and it wants to enter the UK market with its seemingly unquenchable thirst for SUVs.

Felipe Munoz of JATO

JATO Dynamics analyst, Felipe Munoz (right), has been analysing the SUV sector in the UK for us. I asked him if we had reached peak SUV. Not, apparently, by some way, even if we had reached peak car in the UK. Read Felipe’s fascinating insight here: SUV growth unaffected by peaking UK car market.

LEVC electric range extender vanHail that new van!

From delivering people to delivering goods. That’s the next step for the London EV Company (LEVC) which revealed its new electric van built on the same platform as its electric taxi, the TX1.

Backed by Chinese automotive giant Geely – owners of Volvo Cars – LEVC delivered its electric TX taxi to London’s roads in January this year.

The new electric van uses the same e-City drivetrain technology as the taxi – electric battery with range extender.

However, key to this new van is not its ability to do the the last mile delivery stint. But to provide the link between out of town distribution centres and city destinations.

In other words the LEVC electric van uses range extender tech from the depot to the edge of low emission zones, before engaging zero emission mode. It takes out the middle man.

I attended a dinner this week with CEO Chris Gubbey, where LEVC provided some background briefing to the new van. “Extended range and lightweighting are key parts of our offering,” Chris said.

Chris Gubbey
Chris Gubbey

The taxi can do 80 miles in EV mode and 400 miles overall – whether this will be replicated in the van we don’t know yet, but will obviously depend on load.

However, the LEVC electric van is stuffed full of safety kit from sister Geely company Volvo. And Chris said technology – such as geofencing – would play a key part in the new van’s suite of plus points.

“You will need to know when you enter a zero emission zone, so that the range extender engine can be restricted. This will be essential.”

By 2022 Chris reckons that the new van will be produced at the rate of 5000 a year, sharing the Coventry factory’s line with the TX1 taxi. Of these 50% would be due for export. At full capacity the Coventry plant, which opened in 2017 following a £325m investment, can produce 20,000 vans and taxis.

For more on this exciting new van, read our story on Business Vans:  LEVC electric taxi maker reveals range extender electric van.

Ford Mondeo Hybrid - star of Ford Business WeekFord Business Week

Next week has been officially designated Ford Business Week – by Ford.

Ford Business Week is a promotional event for Ford dealers to help and assist SMEs with leasing and expertise around company cars and vans. “We want to make sure that local businesses know what we’re doing and how we can assist them,” Ford Fleet Director Owen Gregory told me at the recent CV Show.

The Ford Mondeo Hybrid (above) will be the star of the show – with its low emission company car appeal and real world 50+mpg the key messages for SMEs. Click here to find out more about Ford Business Week.

Skoda SuperbEV leasing, used car leasing and SME car leasing to grow says Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the global automotive analysts, reckons that new mobility models such as electric vehicle (EV) leasing, private vehicle leasing and used car leasing will transform the global fleet leasing market and create tremendous growth opportunities.

Frost & Sullivan believes that operational leasing – contract hire – is predicted to account for 30.3% of company cars sold in 2018.

Consumer preference for fixed-budget and hassle-free car usage will create leasing demand in both Europe and North America with these seven areas of particular growth:

  • Electric Vehicle leasing;
  • Used car leasing;
  • Small-medium enterprise (SME) leasing;
  • Mobility as a Service solutions such as car subscription, car sharing and mobility budget offering fierce competition to the fleet leasing industry;
  • Adoption of blockchain technology in fleet and leasing for faster paperless smart contracts;
  • The aggressive targeting of companies via digital tools and white-label partnerships to attract new business by leasing providers
  • Leasing companies offering telematics which is helping transform leasing into a sophisticated mobility solution

It’s certainly the future, but it’s fascinating stuff.

If you want to understand more about the future of the market, then it’s worth visiting the Intelligent Mobility conference in London on June 19-20. Business Car Manager is the media partner of the event.

Intelligent Mobility

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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