Electric vans currently make up fewer than 1,500 of the 370,000 vans sold annually in the UK, yet the government wants 40% of new vans to be zero-emission by 2030. This project tackles a practical bottleneck in that transition: the logistics of keeping electric delivery vans charged without wasting drivers’ time or disrupting operations. Light goods vehicles produce 15% of UK road-transport greenhouse gases and a third of nitrogen oxide emissions, despite being less than 10% of vehicles on the road. Switching to electric vans is slowed by limited range, reduced payload, and the hassle of plugging in. Wireless charging—where vans park over pads that transfer power without cables—could let fleets charge quickly during routine stops, with remote control and no driver effort. The team will build and test 22-kilowatt wireless chargers on four vans used by two operators, measure manufacturing costs, simulate real-world delivery routes, and design a scheduling tool to manage charging conflicts. If successful, the work could make electric fleets more practical for parcel hubs, supermarket deliveries, and other urban logistics—reducing emissions from a sector that quietly moves goods through every city.
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Light Goods Vehicles (LGVs) contribute around 15% of UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from road transport and 33% of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, whilst making up <10% of vehicles on our roads. Government policy, as described in the Road to Zero report, is for all new van sales to be zero emissions by 2040, and 40% of new vans to be ultra-low emissions by 2030. This will require rapid increases in uptake of electric vans from the current base of around 1500 electric vans out of 370,000 total vans sold in the UK in 2018. EVs differ from diesel vehicles in terms of range, maximum payload, and availability of energy infrastructure. Operational implications for the logistics sector that arise due to these differences are not well understood, outside of a few narrow use cases. In future, autonomous vehicles will also need to be considered, as the removal of driver constraints is likely to change the optimality of solutions to vehicle allocation and routing problems. Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) has the potential to mitigate fleet integration challenges, by making charging sessions quicker to initiate and more easily controlled remotely, which has benefits for opportunity charging. User acceptance by drivers may be helped through timesaving benefits in handling plugs and cables. This project will demonstrate the benefits and costs of WEVC through six principal approaches: i) a hardware demonstration of high power WEVC (22kW) on 4 vans, 2 users, where costs and benefits will be measured; ii) a manufacturing study to understand future capability and costs; iii) simulation of logistics operations using real world data to explore the impact of WEVC; iv) assessment of the network impact of charging/logistic hubs (WEVC-MFCs) enabled by WEVC; v) development of a scheduling tool to solve charging session conflicts; vi) site selection, design and planning (e.g. vendor selection and finance) for a full scale demonstration of the WEVC-MFC concept at the project's conclusion. The project brings together logistics modelling expertise from Heriot-Watt University (HWU) and low carbon and vehicle technology, energy infrastructure and commercial knowledge from Flexible Power Systems (FPS). City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) will participate in the project as a vehicle user and work with FPS and HWU to find follow on sites. Lear Corporation (Lear) will advise on WEVC technology, vehicle integration and long-term price trajectories. Hitachi Vehicle Capital Solutions (HVCS) will support expansion of the engaged customer group.
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