Tag: #driveelectric #evs #charging #motoring

Lotus Launches Charging Solutions for Electric Vehicles

Lotus has launched today its own electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions including an ultra-fast 450 kW DC charger, power cabinet and a modular unit for charging up to four vehicles at once.

Charging anxiety remains one of the main barriers to electric vehicle adoption, with nearly 80% of the public citing the lack of charging infrastructure as a primary reason for not buying an EV in a survey conducted by the Energy Policy Institute. With Lotus’ charging capabilities, the company is providing consumers with reliability and confidence wherever they are driving.

The new suite of EV charging solutions designed for businesses includes:

  • Liquid-Cooled All-in-One DC Charger: a new charger, which offers ultra-fast charging of up to 450 kW. For example, with the Lotus Eletre R, it can add up to 88.5 miles or 142 km of range with approximately 5 minutes of charge making it one of the most competitive electric vehicle chargers. A 10% to 80% charge can be achieved in just 20 minutes with a range extension of 74 miles or 120 kilometres from a 5-minute charge when using a 350 kW Rapid Charger.
  • Liquid-Cooled Power Cabinet: a modular power cabinet that is suited for spaces that require high energy in order to increase efficiency and minimise charging time, such as motorway rest stops. It offers market-leading power output capabilities of up to 480 kW.
  • Liquid-Cooled Charging Unit: a charging terminal, which when used with the Liquid-Cooled Power Cabinet, can charge up to four vehicles at once. The unit has a maximum current output of 600 Amp, which ensures it is able to meet the needs of all electric vehicle drivers. For instance, if they need a short top-up whilst on the go, or fast-charge for long distance drives, Lotus’ new offering provides them with a convenient solution.

Lotus is using liquid-cooled technologies throughout its suite of commercial charging solutions to make it easier and quicker for EV drivers to charge their vehicles.

Lotus’ fast-charging solutions have already been deployed in China and are expected to roll out across the majority of European countries and Middle East in Q2 2024. Further market availability will be announced in due course.

As charging infrastructure improves over time, Lotus is ensuring its customers are equipped by providing a 450 kW solution. Lotus has futureproofed its charging offering, which is expected to be the next step forward in fast charging when the infrastructure becomes readily available. Lotus customers will be able to easily upgrade to this power output without additional hardware costs once in-market service providers rollout grid upgrades.

Mike Johnstone, Chief Commercial Officer at Lotus Group, said: “Over the past six years, Lotus has been investing in the technology and infrastructure to accelerate the transition to electrification. We want to make it easier than ever to own an electric vehicle and with our latest offerings, Lotus is able to provide customers with the confidence to access easy, fast, and efficient charging.”

Alan Wang, Vice-President of Lotus Technology and CEO at Lotus Flash Charge, said: “As more governments are increasing investment into electrification in their journey to net-zero, the demand for a reliable electric vehicle charging infrastructure has never been higher than before. Lotus has developed best-in-class fast charging solutions to deliver a quick and reliable charging experience to meet customer needs.”

In 2018, Lotus announced its Vision80 strategy and plans to transform the brand from a British sports car maker to an all-electric global luxury technology brand by 2028. As part of this transition, the company is committed to developing its own range of EV charging solutions.

The company launched its first electric hyper-SUV Eletre in 2022, with customer deliveries across UK, Europe and China taking place this year. Lotus recently launched Emeya, its next-generation electric hyper-GT, in early September 2023.

Both vehicles integrate hardware, software, and cloud capabilities to deve op a full stack of intelligent driving technologies. They also include HD cameras, radar, and high-precision mapping capabilities to allow the vehicles to precisely perceive their environment in a stereoscopic display, providing a smooth drive even in extreme conditions. Lotus will continue to expand its range of premium electric vehicles, as the company looks to scale in this growing market.

Lotus has seen a huge demand for its products, with an orderbook of over 19,000 vehicles for its Emira sports car and Eletre hyper-SUV. The company has ramped up production this year, having had a record-breaking first half of 2023, and expects the full year to surpass all previous years.

Unique 30-day ‘try before you buy’ electric vehicle loan scheme in Nottingham provides blueprint for UK cities. #Evs #Motoring

A unique 30-day ‘try before you buy’ electric vehicle loan scheme piloted by the Nottingham ULEV Experience project and financed through Nottingham City Council’s Go Ultra Low funding has the potential to act as a blueprint for other UK cities that are considering Clean Air Zones.

 

The Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle loans have been delivered by DriveElectric, one of the UK’s leading EV leasing companies, for the Nottingham ULEV Experience project for the last two years, offering businesses and public sector organisations the opportunity of a fully-funded trial of electric cars and vans for 30 days.

 

Research carried out in March 2020 has shown that the Nottingham ULEV Experience project has been the only solution for businesses to try out an EV for this period of time. A total of 16 vehicle dealerships were contacted to arrange an EV trial and not one could offer a similar 30-day loan.

DriveElectric has managed the EV trials for the Nottingham ULEV Experience including providing the vehicles, booking the 30-day loans, providing a handover about the vehicles and charging, being available throughout the trial to answer any queries, and even arranging insurance if required.

 

The vehicle fleet included some of the very latest EVs such as the Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia e-Niro, which are long-range EVs, capable of between 250-300 miles per charge, and these vehicles proved to be the cars that were most in demand. A total of 52 organisations in Nottingham have enjoyed 72 EV loans over the last 18 months, with 20 EVs being adopted as a result so far.

 

As well as businesses, public sector organisations can be successful ULEV early adopters for a range of reasons, including due to the driving cycles of their fleets often being ideally suited to electric vehicles. Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is one example of such an organisation, which trialled EV loans from the ULEV Experience. The project provided Renault Kangoo and Nissan e-NV200 electric vans for a month to allow the Transport and Logistics team to assess the suitability of the vehicles.

 

Following the trial, positive feedback was received about the larger Nissan e-NV200 van in particular. As well as the electric vans having zero emissions, lower whole-life costs, and being suitable for the required duties, employees preferred the driving experience of the EVs. The Trust now operates two Nissan e-NV200s and based on running these vehicles to date, 40 vans could be swapped to EVs.

 

Mike Potter, Managing Director of DriveElectric, comments: “Most organisations need to experience electric vehicles before making a decision to purchase. Fully-funded month-long EV loans are not readily available through dealerships, manufacturers or any other source. Therefore the ‘Try before you buy’ EV loans provided by the ULEV Experience have been extremely valuable in filling a gap in the market not offered elsewhere.”

 

The ULEV Experience has been a programme dedicated to supporting Nottingham businesses to understand, trial and implement Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles, and has been funded by Nottingham City Council’s Go Ultra Low City project. The programme has been delivered by a consortium led by Cenex, with partners from DriveElectric, the Energy Saving Trust, RideWise, CleanTech Business and Automotive Comms.

 

Similar EV loan schemes could be adopted by other cities around the UK that are implementing measures such as Clean Air Zones to improve air quality. Interest in electric vehicles has risen further since the government announced that the proposed ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles – including plug-in hybrids – may be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 – or possibly even as soon as 2032.

 

Businesses looking to adopt EVs have been incentivised by measures in the March 2020 Budget. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak confirmed that motorists buying electric cars would continue to benefit from the Plug-In Car Grant (until 2022-2023), although it would reduce from £3,500 to £3,000, and cars costing £50,000 or more would be excluded.

 

The Plug-In Van Grant also continues, providing up to a maximum of £8,000 off the price of a plug-in van, and there’s up to £20,000 off the price of large vans and trucks.

 

Company car benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax rates already announced for the three years 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 were confirmed in the Budget. However the Chancellor also said that rates would then be frozen for the following two financial years, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. This means that a pure EV will have 0% BIK in 2020-2021, 1% BIK in 2021-2022, and 2% BIK in 2022-2023 – and in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 – which could save thousands of pounds per year for company car drivers.

 

There was more good news for EV buyers in relation to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). From 1 April 2020 until 31 March 2025 all zero emission vehicles will be exempt from the VED ‘expensive car supplement’. Currently all cars with a list price above £40,000 pay a £320 supplement, which increases to £325 from 1 April 2020, for five years from the second time a vehicle is taxed.

 

DriveElectric is an electric vehicle leasing company that has been helping organisations and individuals to adopt EVs to save money, lower emissions and transition to low carbon energy since 2008. DriveElectric aims to make the switch to electric cars and vans simple for business fleets.

 

www.drive-electric.co.uk