ABM Q4 - Flipbook - Page 90
THE G R E AT D E B AT E
HGV
Trinity Francis meets with two industry heavyweights
and pitches them against each other on the topic of
electric trucks – from legislation, to infrastructure and
economic viability
→ Chris Welch
is managing director of the Welch Group
T
he Welch Group has been
a leading early mover
in electrification, having
deployed a mix of electric
artics and rigids. The
company also runs a Renault
Trucks workshop, so the
decision to explore eHGVs
sooner rather than later is one
that Chris Welch sees as critical to the
family businesses’ longevity.
“The wheels are already in motion,”
Welch says. “You can’t reverse what
we’ve already done. You can’t stipulate
to OEMs across the whole of Europe that
you have to achieve these targets and
then remove them.
“People argue that the UK only has
1% of the global emissions, but you
can say that about everything. We as
Western civilisations are supposed to
demonstrate to the rest of the world how
to do things. They are right – we are only
1%. But that’s not the principle of it.”
The Welch Group has invested in its
own charging facilities that are already
being shared with other hauliers running
eHGVs, and will soon be open to fleets
like Openreach that run a
large number of electric
vans.
“Our night tariff is about
17p,” Welch says. “If we
don’t bring in any thirdparty outside charging,
with all the costs laid on
– £45 per hub per day
for standing charge, the
maintenance package,
and paying off those
chargers within
a very, very lean
depreciation model
– we’re sitting at
33p, 34p kWh
equivalent.”
This brings fuel
costs for the
company’s eHGVs to parity with its diesel
trucks. By 2031, Welch projects that half
of the fleet, around 35 vehicles, will be
electric. Combined with between 50 to
60 daily charging sessions from vans, he
expects this will bring their electric costs
down to single digits per kWh.
“That takes two-thirds off the energy
running costs of our vehicles,” he says.
“A third of what we spend as an operator
every year is diesel. I spend £5.5m
to £6m a year on diesel. If we fully
electrified our fleet and that became
£2m, then if nothing else changed in my
world, I would be making £4m profit.
Even if you’ve got half electric and half
diesel, it’s a £2m profit.”
Welch acknowledges this is an
oversimplification, but sees shared
charging as a key piece of the puzzle to
make the economics work.
While many operators will not be in
the position to invest on the same scale,
Welch argues that the pallet network is
the ideal scenario for electric rigids.
He explains: “A lot of the industry gets
hung up just concentrating on the bad
bit, saying ‘I can’t tramp round Scotland
in a 42-tonne electric artic because
it won’t work.’ You don’t need to now,
concentrate on the other end.
“Rigids and pallet networks are the
prime electrification piece, because an
average pallet network pallet is about
750kg, if not a little bit less. You’re going
to get 12 to 14 pallets on a 19-tonne, so
you’re not going to hit that payload limit.”
Most depots will also have headroom
to upgrade a powerpoint to a commando
socket to run a single-shifted rigid.
Welch credits the company’s approach
to electrification with a rapid period of
growth, adding: “By the end of this year
we’ll have grown 30% in two years in our
transport division.
"Customers have moved to us because
we have the electric vehicles, and
because we have the big infrastructure,
and because they can see it’s the
direction of travel. It’s grown our
business massively – more growth than
I’ve seen in my 14 years here.”
