Dixons Carphone to convert to electric and alternative fuel fleet by 2030
Dixons Carphone has signed up to the Climate Group’s EV100 initiative, pledging to switch its commercial fleet to electric and alternative fuel vehicles by 2030 and to transition more than half of its medium duty vehicles.
Dixons Carphone becomes the latest corporate to join the EV100, which aims to spur corporate uptake of electric vehicles (EVs). Companies such as OVO Energy, business service provider Rentokil Initial vehicle provider Tusker, construction firm Tarmac and vehicle subscription service Drover all signed up to the initiative earlier in the year to mark World Environment Day.
Dixons Carphone will install EV charging points across its estate. The company will also introduce new Miles Per Gallon (MPG) targets for its fleet drivers to help deliver annual year-on-year reductions in carbon emissions.
More than half of its medium duty vehicles will be converted to electric or alternative fuels and the retailer has also signed up to Logistics UK’s ‘Van Policy’ Working Group to help create enabling policies for decarbonisation in the logistics industry.
Dixons Carphone’s chief supply chain officer Lindsay Haselhurst said: “With an average of four million customer deliveries of amazing technology every year, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to work in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way. This is why I am delighted we have joined the Climate Group’s EV100 initiative and committed to transition to a viable electric fleet by 2030.”
EV100
The EV100 has spurred the adoption of 80,000 low-carbon vehicles and is now targeting 2.5 million vehicles by 2030. The latest annual report reveals that the 2.5 million vehicles will save 42 million metric tons CO2e, the annual emissions of 11 coal power plants.
However, members of the EV100 have stated that concerns persist about a lack of vehicles supply to spur the EV transition.
Last year, Seven out of ten respondents to the Climate Group’s annual update cited a lack of charging infrastructure as their biggest concern, with the upfront cost of EVs cited as the second most common challenge.
This year, however, a lack of vehicle supply from the auto industry is now the top corporate barrier to the EV transition, with 79% of respondents highlighting it as the main challenge, up by 33% from last year. The number of EV models is expected to climb from fewer than 100 to more than 170 in Europe by the end of 2020, according to HIS Markit Data. By 2025, the number will reach 330.
EV sales are expected to reach 45 million unit sales a year by 2040, growing 35 times its current size, with the globe’s EV stock set to surpass 320 million, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie.
The Climate Group’s corporate partnerships director Mike Peirce said. “We are delighted that Dixons Carphone is joining the global EV100 initiative as our first technology retailer. The transport sector is the fastest growing contributor to climate change, accounting for around a quarter of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions – we need major companies everywhere to switch their fleets to EV.”
Matt Mace