JANUARY 2014 - # 68 SAVE THE DATE: 16 – 18 JUNE 2014, BRUSSELS JOIN THE 2014 GLOBAL FLEET CONFERENCE WWW.GLOBALFLEET.COM NEXUS COMMUNICATION - FLEET EUROPE #68 - PERIODIC MAGAZINE - JANUARY 2014 - DEPOSIT OFFICE LIÈGE X First results of the Car Policy Survey 2013-2014 MANAGEMENT Green Fleet Management in 2014 International Fleet Manager of the Year Luc Dendievel, Johnson & Johnson DOSSIER Innovation from the International Fleet Industry Award BUSINESS Changing mindsets with AlphaElectric SCOPE NEW FLEET EUROPE WEBSITE www.fleeteurope.com Discover Now
Transcript
JANUARY 2014 - # 68
SAVE THE DATE: 16 – 18 JUNE 2014, BRUSSELSJOIN THE 2014 GLOBAL FLEET CONFERENCEWWW.GLOBALFLEET.COM
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First resultsof the Car PolicySurvey 2013-2014
MANAGEMENT
Green FleetManagement in 2014
InternationalFleet Manager of the YearLuc Dendievel, Johnson & Johnson
DOSSIER
Innovation from the International Fleet Industry Award
BUSINESSChanging mindsetswith AlphaElectric
SCOPE
NEW FLEETEUROPE
WEBSITE
www.fleeteurope.comDiscover Now
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LEON ST Fleets 210×297.indd 5 30/09/13 18:02
P.3FLEET EUROPE # 68
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We’re going nowhere unless it’s green
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Don’t take me the wrong way. The Incredible Hulk is not in town. Shrek is not going to appear from around the next corner. But we are now seeing that a green attitude can have a transformative effect on fleet performance.
The winners of the 2013 Fleet Europe Awards are all green enthusiasts. We are increasingly finding that fleet managers are busy measuring and managing CO2 emissions, monitoring and mitigating fuel consumption, and exploring the viability of new powertrains in their quest to become sustainable fleet managers. Green is now part of the DNA of best practice fleet management – and it is here to stay. In this issue we hear how three Fleet Europe Award winners are driving behavioural change and making their fleets sustainable. Luc Dendievel (Johnson & Johnson), Laura Gobbis (Luxottica), and Andrzej Sacha (Nestlé) share best practice tips whilst explaining how they make their fleets tick.
Whilst I am writing about the Fleet Europe Awards, I must mention the recent Fleet Europe Forum in Prague that attracted a record number of delegates. I want to thank all the delegates, speakers, and sponsors, who made the both
the Forum and Awards such a resounding success. We are already planning to see how we can support the fleet industry in its quest to optimise performance in 2014. With the new Fleet Europe website complementing our bi-monthly magazine and our dedicated face to face fleet management events, we’ll bring you the latest insights in a variety of engaging ways.
One exciting announcement before I go. We are delighted to announce that the Global Fleet Conference 2014 will take place in Brussels, Belgium, from the 16 – 18 June 2014. If you are a fleet manager or supplier with global coverage, interests or ambitions this conference is for you. Mark your calendar and find out more on www.globalfleet.com and www.fleeteurope.com and on page 59.
I SCOPE I AlphaElectric : E-Mobility with a view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.58
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management in 2014
The development of alternative powertrains; the impact on residual values; the set-up of a green fleet policy; the future of the fuel suppliers; and the road to smart mobility. 9 58
BUSINESS The winning applications from the International Fleet Industry Award. 54
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Reproduction rights (texts, advertisements, pictures) reserved for all countries. Received documents will not be returned. By submitting them, the author implicitly authorizes their publication.
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Fuel consumption urban/extra-urban/combined: 4.2–4.1/4.2–4.1/4.2–4.1 l/100 km; combined CO₂ emissions: 110–107 g/km. Efficiency class: A+.Figures do not relate to the specific emissions or fuel consumption of any individual vehicle, do not form part of any offer and are intended solely to aid comparison between different types of vehicle. The vehicle shown features optional equipment.Provider: Daimler AG, Mercedesstraße 137, 70327 Stuttgart
From 107 g/km CO² – the mostefficient E-Class of all time.The new E 300 BlueTEC HYBRID.
The new benchmark for efficiency. With a combined consumption of just 4.1 l/100 km, the E 300 BlueTEC HYBRIDhas CO₂ emissions of only 107 g/km. That makes it one of the most economical models in its class and the idealvehicle for any fleet. www.mercedes-benz.com/fleet
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Fuel consumption urban/extra-urban/combined: 4.2–4.1/4.2–4.1/4.2–4.1 l/100 km; combined CO₂ emissions: 110–107 g/km. Efficiency class: A+.Figures do not relate to the specific emissions or fuel consumption of any individual vehicle, do not form part of any offer and are intended solely to aid comparison between different types of vehicle. The vehicle shown features optional equipment.Provider: Daimler AG, Mercedesstraße 137, 70327 Stuttgart
From 107 g/km CO² – the mostefficient E-Class of all time.The new E 300 BlueTEC HYBRID.
The new benchmark for efficiency. With a combined consumption of just 4.1 l/100 km, the E 300 BlueTEC HYBRIDhas CO₂ emissions of only 107 g/km. That makes it one of the most economical models in its class and the idealvehicle for any fleet. www.mercedes-benz.com/fleet
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P.9FLEET EUROPE # 68
DOSSIERfrom p. 9 to p. 41
and on the new websitewww.fleeteurope.com
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Takingthe right step
Effective carbon management now sits alongside cost control and fleet safety as a top tier agenda item for an
international corporate fleet manager.It wasn’t always like this. Governments have driven carbon consciousness into the centre ground and developed taxation regimes that favour emissions efficient vehicles.
And more is being demanded by pol-icy makers in the quest for a sustain-able economy and an energy efficient transport network. Manufacturers’ have been pressed to improve vehicle efficiency and bring new powertrains to market. Consumers have been en-couraged to change their behaviours and adopt lower carbon lifestyles. The days when the internal combus-tion engine (ICE) was the only option are now in the past. The hybrid car has been vying with the ICE for some time, and now we have electric and hydrogen powered vehicles as part of the equation. The move towards zero emission mobility is now on.
With each successful step towards emission reduction government suf-fers a fall in its tax take. With public finances under strain you can be sure that the taxation regimes will be quick to change as efficiency improvements feed through the system. We can also take it as given that new taxation mea-sures will be directed towards corpo-rates first.
Anticipating taxation changes and taking action will save euros and emissions.
Steven Schoefs
Keeping ahead of the game and taking action for the future is what differentiates excellence from good practice in fleet management. In this issue we focus in on the green agenda, and the technologies and techniques that can be used by fleet managers to effectively manage fleets today, and predict the fleet needs of to-morrow. ■
P.10 FLEET EUROPE # 68
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
So Soon - what now for the Internal Combustion Engine?Sensational quotes predicting the demise of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) make big headlines and get us talking. Fleet Europe journalist Ally Millar assesses the options ahead for the automotive industry and where the tipping point might be.
It’s hard to imagine life without the Internal Combustion Engine, it’s the beating heart of the industry, right? The worldwide car fleet
has doubled in 25 years. In 1986, 500 million cars drove the world’s roads – but fully loaded BRIC markets pushed the global motor pool up to well over one billion vehicles in 2010; and fu-el-power’s dominance is near-abso-lute. For every one hybrid, EV or alien power-train on the road, there’s circa 500,000 Internal Combustion Engines. Yet some top-thinkers reckon it’ll be gone – and soon. Back in 2000, Bill Ford – great-grandson of Henry and Chairman at the family business – said the Internal Combustion Engine was doomed, but old Bill didn’t give a timeline. International Energy Chief Nobou Tanaka did when speaking ten years later – he gave the ICE until 2050. And at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, Mercedes innovator Thomas Weber reduced the ICE’s predicted shelf-life further – to just “20 or 30 years”.
MedievalThe old Internal Combustion Engine is getting a bad press right now. Rem-iniscent of smoking legislation chang-
es a decade ago – maybe we’ll come to shudder it was ever acceptable at all. In October, London’s Deputy May-or Kit Malthouse called the burning of fossil fuels to power vehicles “medi-eval” versus the “magical” Hyundai zero emission ix35 Fuel Cell. Not only does the ICE burn fossil fuels, it’s only 30% efficient at doing so. Fuel Cells, and Electric Vehicles score at as much as 90% engine efficiency – so with that and the hype, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’ve already found ICE’s successor.
The tipping pointWhat a car’s engine will be in 20, 30, 40 years time may soon be obvious, but we’re waiting for the moment all the small changes and minor inroads become significant enough to precip-itate larger, sustained change. This very definition means we’re waiting and watching for the tipping point – the moment history names the ICE’s successor.
HybridsE-Mobility leads the way. The e-revo-lution arguably started with Toyota’s 3-million-selling Prius Hybrid so only fair we start our analysis with the car that’s half and half.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Hybrid has had its day, but in October Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada told the Economic Club of Washington D.C that Hybrid vehi-cles will, instead of being a “bridge to the future”, play a significant role in shaping the industry’s development. Data analysing US trends agrees. Sales of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.6 per-cent between 2013 and 2022.
Plug-in electric vehiclesAs they require no fuel at all – EVs look more future-savvy, but there’s work ahead. Consider that Toyota has sold 5-million Hybrids al in, the best-sell-ing EV has shifted less than 2% of that. Since launch in 2010, Nissan’s LEAF EV has sold 71,000 units; albeit over a wide geographical area. EVs in total account for just 0.02% of global motor sales – it’s not revolutionary. Hybrids have some market clout but EVs haven’t yet made a cultural dent. Consumers still list reliability and price as main criteria when car-shop-ping and, although EVs are making huge strides in these areas, there’s a matrix of perceived problems such as range anxiety, a lack of education,
P.11FLEET EUROPE # 68
Alistair Millar
ICE-powered cars represent 99.7% of cars on the road and estimates reckon 200,000 ICE-powered cars are as-sembled every single day. The global industry’s worth nearly $1,000 billion.
So Soon - what now for the Internal Combustion Engine?
charging infrastructure, and a confus-ing total cost of ownership model. Still, the numbers of EVs on the road doubled between 2011 and 2012. So the concept is going somewhere – and quickly. In the last two years, BWM, Mercedes, Land Rover, Peu-geot, Opel and even Porsche, have announced, and even launched EVs, thus increasing the diversity and ap-peal of electric cars – and interest has piqued in line with funding. Govern-ments have ploughed an accumulative $8.7bn into EV research and devel-opment since 2008, focussing par-ticularly on infrastructure and more cost-effective batteries. And batteries are a big sticking point. Experts are hopeful Hybrids and PHEVs will see their battery pack costs reduce by between 10 and 26% by 2020 – but we’re still a breakthrough away. In November, Ford announced an $8m project to solve the problem of the EV battery, with head researcher Ted Miller noting “In the span of 15 years, the industry has gone from lead-acid to nickel-metal-hydride to lithium-ion batteries … we are convinced [there’s] a better solution.”The EV concept is moving forward – a new tracker report from Navigant found there’s almost 64,000 public Plug-in Electric Vehicle charging sta-tions installed globally while exponen-tial growth will see the EV claim al-most 7% of the motor market by 2020.
Hydrogen Fuel CellsThere’s been a hydrogen resurgence of late. Navigant estimates the FCV market will grow from $194 million in 2015 to $73.8 billion in 2030 – and Scandanavia, Germany and the UK lead the charge. In June, the first Hyundai iX35 mod-els hit the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark and in October it came to London. The UK will have 60 fu-eling stations by 2015 as part of a Europe-wide initiative to create a Y shaped hydrogen highways across Europe running from Rome to Scandi-navia via the UK. In the past two years, BMW, Daimler, Nissan and Honda have also announced plans around fuel cell drivetrains, and collaboration agreements are in place to mitigate early technology risks. Toyota too is trying to tap the mass market poten-tial of hydrogen power with an FCV Concept Car that boasts a range of at least 300 miles (500km) on a full tank and a refuelling time of three minutes. Pretty slick.
BiofuelAll this talk of an e-revolution could be moot if some genius in a Siberian lab invents a machine that converts urine, sugar or wheat into a sustainable fuel – stranger things have happened. Realistically, there’s potential for bio-fuels, whether ICE compatible or not, to change the game.
Death of 1,000 cutsMaybe we’re waiting on the BOOM! moment when the successor to ICE is born – but of the technologies men-tioned in this article, not one has yet had its watershed moment. It could be that we have bitty, piecemeal prog-ress for the next few years that ebbs away gently at the ICE’s dominance. The tipping point could simply be death by 1,000 cuts. Having said that, ICE has adapted tremendously well down the years, staying ahead of the technology and software curve to find new innovations, breakthroughs and efficiencies to reduce the nasties and improve in all areas. After a century of dominance the ICE has a lot of very influential friends – and there’s much social, financial and cultural capital around it – ICE ain’t going down without a fight. ■
The Internal Combustion Engine ain’t going down without a fight.
99%
P.12 FLEET EUROPE # 68
Not the end of the road for internal combustion
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Efforts to reduce polluting emissions are intensifying, but combustion engines are not going to be disappearing from our roads any time soon. On the contrary - they are going to need updating again.
Hybrid and electric solu-tions offer manufacturers tempting opportunities for reducing consump-
tion; however they always incur a significant additional cost. Such technologies are restricted to a few specific models, and they are not yet suited to all categories of vehicle.In the vast majority of cases, tra-ditional combustion engines will remain dominant in the automo-tive industry for the time being. But even so, the writing is on the wall for them, in view of the imminent arriv-al of new anti-pollution standards. The new European Euro 6 standards are set to come into force on the 1st of September 2014 for all new appli-cations for approval and, a year lat-er, for new registrations of existing models. Under the Euro 5 standard, there was a drastic reduction in the emission of fine particles for die-sel engines; this new development focuses on emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). These are gases that are directly harmful to humans and released in the most part by diesel engine technology.
The end for diesels with no SCR filter?The initial logical consequence of the tightening of these standards is that diesel will only continue to be used to power models for which it is really necessary. The reality is that diesel engines will disappear from the city car sector.
Midsized models will be made to observe the drastic new standards without needing to adopt addition-al means of filtration, but this will not apply for the most cumbersome models.
Following the widespread use of particle filters in diesel engines, en-forced under the Euro 5 standard, the Euro 6 standard will trigger the blanket rollout of another type of post-treatment for gas emissions - SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) filters. These enable (harmful) nitro-gen oxides to be converted into nitro-gen (an inoffensive gas, the principal constituent of air) and water. To bring
about this process, a small reservoir of a urea-based liquid called AdBlue needs to be carried on board (in the majority of cases).This system has been in use for heavy goods vehicles for some years, so there are plenty of AdBlue distri-bution pumps along our roadsides. The good news is that drivers of cars where this system is fitted should not need to keep stopping to fill it up. The reservoirs in private cars fitted with SCR filters will generally last for between 15 and 20,000 km, so this will become part of standard maintenance. The bad news is that the time between visits to the garage is expected to be less than with tra-ditional modern engines without this filter, so running costs will increase slightly as a result.Nevertheless, this system offers an appreciable advantage from a tech-nical point of view: by leaving the process to a post-treatment system for purifying emission gases, man-ufacturers can concentrate their ef-forts on engine output (by increasing the combustion temperature and compression level, for example) and thus reduce fuel consumption/CO2 emissions.
CO2 is kingEven though it is not one of the emis-sions directly targeted by the Euro 6 standard, the level of waste CO2 in cars will still need to be appreciably reduced in the medium term. Europe has just agreed that emissions in new
Audi A3 berline
Peugeot 308
P.13FLEET EUROPE # 68
Jean-François Christiaens
Not the end of the road for internal combustion
vehicles will need to be limited to 95g/km from 2020. Numerous tech-niques are being progressively set in motion to achieve this. Foremost among the most popular measures is the modernisation of peripheral equipment (such as power steering, the water pump, the interfaced alter-nator etc.), to prevent the energy of the combustion engine being pumped around uselessly. In practice, these modifications will be fairly transpar-ent to the driver, even though some of the perverse side-effects are ques-tionable, such as steering perfor-mance that is clearly more artificial than with the old hydraulic systems.Another approach that is rapidly catching on is maximising the output of combustion engines. In this regard, the primary goal is downsizing, that is, the trend towards reducing the capacity of an engine while retain-ing equivalent performance, both for diesel and petrol engines. Over and above the widespread use of direct injection coupled with supercharg-ing, manufacturers are turning more
and more frequently to even more modern techniques, such as the use of controlled radiator grill flaps, or an on-demand water pump that en-ables the engine to heat up faster (used most for a cold start), or indeed targeted cutoff for certain cylinders according to the power requirement at the time. In practice, these mod-ifications will primarily prove to be revolutionary in petrol engines. The convenience associated with large capacity vehicles (flexibility, smooth-ness) will be found in engines with a more modest capacity that are capa-ble of consuming less when driven at a steady speed. The performance of these powerful small engines can appear intoxicating, but it should nev-ertheless be noted that their actual consumption depends on the driver’s driving style even more than before! But, being honest, these innovations are built primarily to meet theoretical standards, and they do not always de-liver a proportionately reduced level of consumption. ■
Mercedes Class S
On a dietSimply modifying the mechanical characteristics will not prove to be sufficient to tangibly reduce consumption in modern vehicles. After years of excess, cars don’t really have a choice: they must lose weight! Fortunately for manufacturers, the improvement in high or even ultra-high strength steels has enabled them to make their vehicles lighter. Thus a virtuous circle is gradually started: a lighter car can make do with a smaller, lighter engine... The new Peugeot 308 is a striking example of this prevalent trend: with the same engine type, it weighs 140 kg less than its predecessor, 70 kg of which is thanks to its lighter platform alone!
In your car fleet tomorrow?• Alfa Romeo SUV
• BMW Series 1 Gran Turismo
• BMW X4
• Citroën DS2
• Ford EcoSport
• Ford Mondeo
• Honda Civic Tourer
• Mazda CX-3
• Mercedes C Class
• Mercedes GLA
• Mini
• Nissan Qashqai
• Opel Corsa
• Porsche Macan
• Renault Twingo
• SEAT SUV
• Skoda Fabia
• smart Fortwo
• Volkswagen Golf Sportsvan
• Volvo XC90
P.14 FLEET EUROPE # 68
The hybridempire is spreading
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Hybridisation is no longer a technology of the future. It is about to spread across the automotive world like wild fire, affecting almost every segment. Is this a revolution?
e careful not to fall into the trap - some so-called eco cars have a very limited level of hybridisa-tion. However appealing the hybrid solution looks on paper, it doesn’t always turn out to be
so convincing in practice. To get the benefit of real prac-tical advantage, the first thing to remember is that only full hybrid cars really deliver on their promises. These models are characterised by their ability to travel - even if temporarily - under the power of electrical energy alone. They move silently, with no vibration, and use no fuel at all when sat in a traffic jam. What a change that makes!Without going into the complex technical details about architecture or level of hybridisation, there are three dif-ferent approaches in hybrid technology: eco-hybridisation, “passion” hybridisation and practical hybridisation.
Eco-hybridisationThe legendary Toyota Prius is the best example of the category of hybrids designed to set records for consump-tion. The combustion engine is big enough, but not too big, to deliver a decent level of performance when needed (1.8 litre petrol, 88 hp engine), and the electric element (the engine and battery) is ideally calibrated to reduce the con-sumption of fuel, but without putting too much of a strain
on the wallet. The advantage of this configuration is that the cost is more or less equivalent to that of a comparable diesel sedan; the engine is perfectly suited to small jour-neys and trips around town; and polluting, noxious emis-sions are minimised, with none of the other constraints typical of an “anticipative” driving style.The down side, on the other hand, is that the driving expe-rience is still slightly below par in key areas compared to equivalent conventional models, and the level of consump-tion is very much linked to the style of driving.
“Passion” hybridsFor the majority of widely-available, premium hybrid models, the intention is clearly not to offer the lowest consumption possible. Rather, the aim is to retain a level of performance identical to that of more powerful combustion engines, while demonstrating lower emission levels in hybrid mode. The inclusion of an electric motor thus enables an appreciable accumulation of power when required, while a modest, more restrained combustion engine is used in cruise mode. As specialists in large capacity cars, the German manufacturers will be making extensive use of this solution in the future. For example, the new flagship model at Mercedes, the Class S, includes no fewer than three different hybrid solutions in its catalogue. The diesel hybrid version makes do with a “small” four cylinder 2.2 litre engine backed up with a 250 Nm torque electric motor. Hence it offers performance levels more or less equivalent to those of the version V6 3.0 litre diesel, while reducing the standardised consumption from 5.6 litres/100 km in the V6 diesel to 4.4 litres/100 km for the hybrid variant.Effectively you get the benefit of a driving experience equivalent to that of an engine with a larger capacity, but the real bonuses of the configuration are largely academ-ic and financial. Here again, the reduction in consumption during use is very much related to the driving style adopt-ed. Furthermore, the possibility of driving in purely electric mode turns out to be somewhat limited (only over a short distance and/or only at low speed).
Toyota Auris
B
P.15FLEET EUROPE # 68
Jean-François Christiaens
The hybridempire is spreading
Practical hybridsHaving two different engines can have a practical benefit: it can offer all-wheel drive without having to suffer the down sides. This is because there is no need to shove an unwieldy drive shaft between the two axles. One ex-ample is the architecture of French group PSA’s Hybrid4: the combustion engine drives the front wheels and the electric motor, installed at the back, takes care of the rear wheels. This is a practical advantage in win-ter: if the front wheels spin, it’s like being at the wheel of a 4 x 4 vehicle where the rear wheels can help out - but without the need for a cumber-some conventional drive shaft. This is how hybridisation can prove itself to be practical.
Rechargeable hybridsVehicles in this new category are still clearly expensive to buy, but it is the range of plug-in hybrids that really proves convincing in use. Halfway
between a traditional combustion-driven car and an electric car, this PHEV category (Plug-in Hybrid
Electric Vehicle) enables you to drive in 100% electric mode in the week (you recharge the batteries directly from the grid, as with an electric car), while it remains a multi-functional model capable of covering hundreds of kilometres at the weekend (by filling up with conventional fuel again). Another advantage in financial terms is that the theoretical approval level for these half-electric/half-combustion vehicles is very low (under 50g of CO2/km for some models). On the other hand, the big down side of this configuration is that you have to add in the costs of a powerful battery and a full hybrid engine. As a result, the costs of the few models of this type that are currently available are extortionate. ■
VW Golf
The marriageHybrid engine does not necessarily spell electric motor. Officially, the «hybrid» label simply indicates that the trans-mission system uses at least two different types of energy for propulsion. In practice, with cars, this is almost always an electric machine used as an assist for a traditional combustion engine. But you could also imagine a «marriage» between a combustion engine and a hydraulic system, as is already the case with certain types of construction equip-ment. Moreover, French group PSA is developing a technology called HybridAir, which it is aiming to transfer to the car. Set a reminder for 2016, which is when the first commercial model is set to be launched.
In your car fleet tomorrow?• Audi A3
• Audi A8 face-lift
• BMW i8
• BMW 7 Series
• BMW X5 e-Drive
• Lexus RC
• Lexus SUV compact
• Mercedes S500 PHEV
• Mitsubishi Outlander
• Peugeot 6008
• Porsche 911 Spider
• Range Rover and Range Rover Sport hybrids
• Volkswagen Golf
Range Rover
Porsche Panamera S
P.16 FLEET EUROPE # 68
Extendingthe comfort zone
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Some electric models are switching to range extender technology to retain an altogether more user-friendly multi-functionality. Does that mean hav-ing your cake and eating it?
In theory, a car using two different types of energy (combustion and electricity) for propulsion ought to boast the title of “hybrid”. But
in practice, it is still easier to differ-entiate between the models on the basis of the principle used: is this a combustion-driven car assisted by an electric motor, or is it an electric car with a combustion engine as a back-up? The latest category of vehicles, called range extender hybrids (such as the Chevrolet Volt / Opel Ampera duo) uses the latter approach. Unlike a conventional hybrid, which increas-es the number of times the combus-tion engine is started and stopped, these cars give priority to the use of energy stored in their batteries.
The aim of this is to keep fuel con-sumption to a minimum (the combus-tion engine is only engaged to prevent a failure). The batteries, meanwhile, are recharged from the grid (“plug-in” function). At the same time, there is a plan B if you need to travel a distance greater than the energy available in the batteries can cover. Only then is the combustion engine aroused from its slumber. However, in the vast majority of cases, it is not used for driving the wheels direct-ly. Rather, the combustion engine is more like a generator, transforming fossil fuel into electricity that will feed the electric motor directly and gradually recharge the on-board bat-teries.
Advantages and disadvantagesThis technology has the undeniable advantage of offering versatility to the electric car. And above all, it can adjust to the existing infrastructure, as a tankful of petrol will prevent it from running out of energy on long journeys. The presence of a combus-tion engine as a back-up means that such electric vehicles can make do with a battery pack of generally mod-est capacity - making the cars much cheaper to buy. The other side of the coin, however, is that the car com-bines the costs of two technologies (combustion and electricity), since it needs two types of engine on board. Furthermore, there is a significant, often unused mass to be hauled on each journey (combustion engine + tank of fuel), which considerably increases the consumption of elec-tricity and thus reduces the range of the vehicle. The final drawback, and a considerable one to boot, is that the use of a combustion engine to generate electricity does nothing to improve the carbon footprint of these long-range electric vehicles. Nor does it help matters in terms of cost of use, since the consump-tion of fuel to generate the electric-ity required for a journey of 100 km is somewhat more than that for a conventional eco-friendly combus-tion-driven car. But the automotive industry is only taking its first fal-tering steps in this area. The Opel Ampera and Chevrolet Volt, the first
cars to have the technology, are fit-ted with a hefty four-cylinder 1.4L engine of a fairly old and relatively greedy design, so future examples of this type ought to have small-er, much more efficient engines. One example is BMW’s latest electric car, the i3, which offers a consider-ably more compact range extend-er option. Drawing on the Bavarian manufacturer’s motorbike range, this has a 650cm³ twin cylinder engine. This enables the range to be extended to more than 300 km, with bonus dis-tances of 150 km each time you come across a petrol station (9L tank).
Opel Ampera
Jean-François Christiaens
Extendingthe comfort zone
On the roadDoes driving a range extender car prove convincing in practice? During the first few kilometres driving in 100% electric mode, it seems so. The driving experience is pleasant, thanks to the lack of noise and vibra-tion and the instant response from the torque. Furthermore, unlike hy-brid vehicles that can only drive at low speeds in electric mode, the combus-tion engine is not called on for assis-tance when the accelerator pedal is fully depressed (so you can slip be-tween the lorries on the sliproad onto the motorway, for example).
You are driving a purely electric car as long as the batteries permit or the battery saving mode is not en-gaged (if you need to end your jour-ney in a town centre, for example). Things start getting exciting when the combustion engine awakes from its slumber on its own account to start generating electricity. That’s when you notice a feeling that is somewhat disconcerting at first: as it is not directly providing propulsion, the combustion engine does not change speed in direct relation to the position of the accelerator pedal. Rather, it changes in stages, remain-
ing at a given speed for a few seconds to compensate for a surplus in elec-tric consumption during the previous acceleration, for example. Hence, when you come to a stop at a red light, the combustion engine is running at a speed higher than usual for slowing down; and, when approaching a bend, it gives the impression of continuing to accelerate, even though you have already depressed the brake pedal. It is quite a surprising experience at first. But one you get used to quite quickly. ■
It is difficult to pigeon-hole hybrid technology in «watertight» boxes. Take the recent example of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV for example. Its generous lithium-ion battery enables a 100% electric mode typical of a conventional re-chargeable hybrid. Then, if you are happy with «normal» use, the combustion engine is used merely for its generators, to supply the two electric motors (one per axle) with energy. Hence it feels like being at the wheel of a range extender electric vehicle. But if the need for a boost in power makes itself felt, its combustion engine can also drive the front wheels directly at any time, in addition to the electric motors. The sensation is then more akin to being at the wheel of a more conventional full hybrid vehicle.Mitsubishi Outlander
* Zero-carbon operation, encompassing everything from power generation to use on the road, requires energy sourced entirely from renewable resources.
0 g CO2 / km* 125 kW (170 hp)BMW i3
At BMW i, we know the corporate world is all about effi ciency, so we’ll keep this short and simple. Why should fl eet managers consider the all-new, all-electric BMW i3? First, with its highly dynamic and effi cient BMW eDrive technology, it’s a perfect fi t for innovation-minded companies. Second, with its intelligent handling of resources throughout the value chain, it makes a strong sustainability statement. Third, with its connectivity features, it’s a functional workplace when required. Fourth, it can bring down the cost of ownership. And fi nally, as a genuine BMW, it’s going to put a smile on the faces of all of your colleagues. And on yours. More: bmw-corporate-sales.com
Three years after the official launch of the first electric cars on the market the time has come to take stock. Has the tech-nology won over the public?
Some would say that electric technology is a bit of a late starter in Europe. It all depends how optimis-tic your outlook. But there is no getting away from the fact that, with the exception of certain markets
(headed by Norway) that are boosted by tempting financial incentives, electric cars have been slow to catch on in our towns. Whichever way you look at it, we are still a long way from the 5 or 10% market share talked of when elec-tric cars were first unveiled. It’s true that forecasters were projecting this much more for the long term, and clearly we are not going to get close to this until 2020, but by that time the choice of electric cars available will be much wider and the price of the technology will be much more affordable. However, it doesn’t take a genius to work out the main reason for our current coolness towards electric technology: drivers are not ready to pay more for a car that is less versatile to use than a traditional combustion engine model.
Burdensome batteriesIf the electric technology market wants to take off, it will have to learn to fend for itself, without massive financial intervention from the state during this period of economic sluggishness. But the problem is that, until batteries can be mass-produced or a less onerous new technology is devel-
oped, electric cars will remain burdened by their higher price ticket. Even though the production costs for electric cars are significantly lower compared to those for petrol-driven models, due to the lack of complex mechanical systems, the final cost is always increased by the battery module. On average, current electric cars have a pack with a capacity of around 22 kWh, to guarantee an effective range of at least
150 km. This pack is significantly greater than for a rechargeable hybrid car, which can generally make do with 5 or 6 kWh, and it makes the price rocket. Be-cause of the technology used, the pack alone costs well over €15,000.
Are they convincing to drive?But even putting aside the cost of the technology, which, depend-ing on the markets, can easily be recouped for commercial fleets thanks to various financial le-
vers, is the technology winning over users? Yes. At least, it is if you accept the principle that electric technology is not intended for every profile of user and that, for the short term at least, its “economic“ interest is mainly confined to tax in-centives. So yes, electric vehicles are not without interest. A ride in the latest representative of the technology is enough to convince anyone - the BMW i3. This premium electric car is a long way from being a golf buggy! BMW wanted to retain its “sporty” label, even with electric cars, and has decided to use an engine offering 170 bhp and 250Nm of torque. This
Ford Focus
P.21FLEET EUROPE # 68
Jean-François Christiaens
means that, with its limited weight, the i3 offers an excellent driving ex-perience. The transmission is direct drive, as with the majority of electric cars that have no gear box, so there is no break in momentum during ac-celeration. In town, it will leave even a sports car standing - the i3 reaches 100 km/h in just 7.2s!When driving, you need to adapt to the fairly pronounced recovery system, as with other electric cars. When you take your foot off the accelerator, the electric motor becomes a generator to recharge the batteries and, as a result, the car brakes noticeably more than through engine braking in a conven-tional petrol-driven car. This is a fea-ture that needs a little time to adjust to, to avoid stopping 5 metres before the white Stop line... But it does extend
the driving range. Without dawdling, we were able to maintain a minimum range of 140 km with our test model, which concurs with the 130 to 160 km bracket in normal driving claimed by BMW.
Recharging at work?As with the majority of electric mod-els, BMW advises installing a wall box at home or at work. This accessory both guarantees secure recharg-ing and reduces the charging time to six hours when the batteries are completely empty. This waiting time should not pose a problem in view of the time company cars spend in com-pany car parks. If necessary, the i3 can also be charged via a conventional socket for an unscheduled trip (a full charge takes eight hours).
Renault Zoe
Wall boxElectric vehicles are set to trigger a widespread revolution in society. For example, BMW offers a carport equipped with photovoltaic panels to accompany its i3. This will both shelter the electric vehicle and recharge it via an integral wall box. Wired up to the house’s network, the panels will supply electricity to the house during the day and recharge the vehicle at night. Even better: a home automation system will eventually be available to control certain features in the house (such as switching off the heating or the lights) when you unplug the car in the morning to go to work.
In your car fleet tomorrow?• BMW i3
• Mercedes B Class
• Renault Twingo
• smart Fortwo
• Tesla Model E
• Tesla Model X
• Volkswagen Golf
• Volkswagen Up
And in an emergency a fast recharge terminal can be used to recharge to 80% capacity in 30 minutes.Gradually, manufacturers are also taking strides to reassure customers ready to take the leap by fleshing out the services offered when buying an electric car: free recovery in the event of “running dry”, for example, or very advantageous rental rates for a petrol vehicle for the holidays or a small van on days when you need to move stuff. The availability of smartphone appli-cations enabling certain features in the car to be checked or controlled remotely will also be winners. But will they be enough to reassure us-ers worried about a power failure...? That is the question. ■
BMW i3
P.22 FLEET EUROPE # 68
2015, the year of hydrogen
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Could hydrogen be the fuel of the future? The first cars equipped with fuel cells are expected to hit the market in 2015.
The future of the car seems to be gradually moving towards electricity, but the problem with the lim-ited range of a 100% electric car and the length of time it takes to recharge the batteries (around
6 to 10 hours on the standard grid) still restrict their use. To ensure that electric cars retain the same versatility as petrol-driven models, in an ideal world, the car would be capable of producing its own electricity...
Fuel cellsBy using a fuel cell, this possibility is no longer in the realms of science fiction. This technology effectively enables hydro-gen gas to be converted into electricity. This electricity can then be used to feed the batteries or be fed directly to the electric motor. Another practical advantage compared to conventional electric cars is that, in this case, when the tank is empty, it only takes a few minutes to fill up with hydrogen again (once you have found a service station that supplies hydrogen, that is...). This operating principle seems all the more appealing when you consider that no pollutants are released into the air when the hydrogen is converted in the fuel cell - just inoffensive water vapour.
Starting blocksEven though it seems very futuristic, the hydrogen revolu-tion is quietly starting. All the major manufacturers already have several generations of prototype behind them. Besides enabling them to accumulate test miles, this enables them to gradually address the various problems posed by the technology (developing tough tanks, enabling the fuel cell to be used in freezing temperatures, feeding the cell in fresh air to increase the output, etc.). There just remains the last, most difficult step: reducing the cost of the various compo-nents to make the technology more accessible. The adven-ture is expected to start in 2015 - this at least is the date
being touted by a number of manufacturers (Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, GM, etc.) for the launch of their first definitive, small production run models.
And in practice?Running completely silently, the first few metres travelled on board a hydrogen prototype feel like being in a purely electric model to those in the vehicle. Then a gentle noise can be heard: this is the fuel cell starting up. The noise in-creases gradually on acceleration, depending on the level of completion of the concepts tested. But overall, driving a hydrogen car feels the same as driving a purely electric car. Except that filling up, as tested in one of the pilot service stations in Germany, really does only take a few minutes. ■
Hydrogen societyHydrogen doesn’t exist in a natural state on Earth, so it has to be made! And if possible, made in an environmen-tally friendly way... Being aware of this problem, some brands are planning to offer complete packages. Honda, for example, is working on the creation of home hydrogen production units capable of converting natural gas (the domestic gas supplied via the standard network) into hydrogen, while retaining the heat for domestic use. Even better: Honda is currently developing a unit capable of producing hydrogen from water that will draw its energy from solar panels.
Honda concept
Hyundai Intrado concept
Jean-François Christiaens
P.23FLEET EUROPE # 68
NEW InsIgnIaCONNECTED TO WHAT COUNTS.Experience a unique level of connectivity with IntelliLink. And our most efficient engines ever: 99 g CO2/km.
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Fuel consumption combined 11,0–3,7 l/100 km; CO2 emission combined 258–99 g/km (according to R (EC) No. 715/2007).
Natural gas is a “clean” fuel that is gaining ground among drivers in Europe. Is it a credible alternative to fossil fuels?
To avoid any confusion, CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) is not simply a new name for LPG (Liq-
uefied Petrol Gas), which has been around for a number of years. A by-prod-uct of the refining process, the latter belongs to petrol products, requires converting, and con-sists of a mixture of around 50% butane and 50% propane. Natural gas, on the other hand, as its name suggests, is found in its natu-ral state in porous rocks. Consisting of a mixture of differ-ent hydrocarbons produced during the decomposition of former living organisms, its precise composition varies, but it always consists mostly (approx. 95%) of methane. In fact, it is simply domestic gas used for cook-ing or heating, but in a compressed form (250 to 300 bar).The popularity of this gas as a fuel for cars is continuing to grow in various major European markets, such as It-
aly, Germany, Sweden and the Neth-erlands. But the market in Europe is still developing.Of the 22 million vehicles in the world that currently use natural gas, the vast majority operate outside of the Old Continent and are mainly found in Iran, Pakistan, Argentina and Brazil.
CleanerThe main advantage of CNG is that it enables the emission of fine parti-cles to be reduced by 95% compared to diesel and enables a reduction of around 25% in CO2 emissions com-pared to petrol. This is a godsend for the manufacturers, who are be-ing obliged to reduce the average emissions of their models. On the other hand, besides slight mechan-
ical modifications, the use of natural gas in a conventional petrol engine means carrying fairly cumbersome tanks on board to achieve an ac-ceptable range. But the containers are integrated into the underfloor, so they don’t take up boot or passen-ger space - nor load space in com-
mercial vehicles, which are being increasingly converted to the tech-nology.
TransparentHow are they to drive? The advantage of the technology is that it is totally unnoticeable to the user. The driving ex-perience is identical to that of a petrol-driven car. At most, you notice a slight loss of power in some models. Being lighter than air, natural gas also enables the vehicles to be parked in underground car parks
- unlike the strictly banned LPG models. The final piece of good news is that cars that use natural gas still have a small tank for standard pet-rol. It’s true that the range with this fuel turns out to be fairly limited. But at least it enables you to stay mobile, even if you find yourself in an area not (or poorly) served by natural gas. ■
Even cleanerThe natural gas stored below our feet is just one step towards the widespread use of even cleaner fuels: biogas (made from organic waste) and even wind power. Since electricity is difficult to store during peaks of production (in high winds for wind farms), it could be used to convert water into hydrogen (which can be stored in tanks) via a simple process of electrolysis. This hydrogen could then be mixed with carbon dioxide (the famous CO2, of which there is a surplus in the atmosphere) to create «synthetic» natural gas.
Fiat Panda
Jean-François Christiaens
FLEET MAGAZINE (BELGIQUE) • SP Plein Papier • 210 x 297 mm • Visuel:3/4 avant new 308 lame bleue • Parution= • Remise le=25/sept./2013 OPR • BAT
peugeot.com
NEW PEUGEOT 308
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the high centre console.
NEW PEUGEOT 3O8
FOCUSED ON
YOUR SENSATIONS
Combined consumption (l/100 km): from 3,7 to 5,8*. CO2 emissions (g/km): from 95 to 134*.
*With 17” or 18” tyres depending on the engine specifications.
Fuel consumption XL1 in l/100 km: 0.9 (combined), power consumption in kWh/100 km: 7.2 (combined), CO2 emissions in g/km: 21 (combined). Power consumption e-up! in kWh/100 km: 11.7 (combined), CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (combined).
Wow! Now!
The new XL1. The new e-up!
Introducing the XL1, the most fuel-efficient eco-friendly series vehicle in the world. It can travel 100 km onone litre of fuel, has a top speed of 160 km/h and can run up to 50 km in all-electric, zero emissions mode.Then there’s the new e-up!. A car that makes e-mobility available to everyone. It delivers 100 % electric,local emission-free driving, as well as powerful amounts of torque right from the start. Super efficient,it has a range of up to 160 km and charges in just 30 minutes. These cars represent a big leap in our quest tochange mobility, but it only takes two little words to describe them. Think Blue.
Refuelling the futureAll the lobbying power and political clout in the world won’t matter if your main product is becoming stig-matised, unfashionable, and obso-lete. Fleet Europe investigates how, before a new green world, fuel sup-pliers are preparing their future.
Say fuel suppliers and per-haps you think Exxon, Shell and BP. But will they be there tomorrow? There’s an
e-revolution afoot and fossil fuels are out. So what are the big boys doing to manage a future where new fuels are the aim of the game? The construction of new fuels and their infrastructures are being fast-tracked across much of the world as emission caps, new fuel targets and green-thinking take over. So while petrol gets a bad press, it’s all about new fuels – and the oil in-dustry’s big boys are watching, waiting and building.
HydrogenAlthough expensive and problematic to transport, hydrogen fuel cells are a hot topic. Just last month the European Par-liament’s Transport Committee voted on measures to build-up the alterna-tive fuel station infrastructure across Europe to break the oil dependency of transport; and to solve the “chick-en and egg” problem of hydrogen fuel cells.The UK aims to have 60 hydrogen fueling stations by 2015 as part of a Europe-wide initiative. Navigant esti-mates the FCV market will grow from $194 million in 2015 to $73.8 billion in 2030 and there are very real plans to build a hydrogen highways that spans much of the continent. You may be thinking gas giants like Centrica, Eon, Total, BOC or Iber-
drola should be best-placed to lead the hydrogen charge, but it’s actually a race that’s wide open – and you just wouldn’t write off the oil barrens yet. Hydrogen’s supply chain and econom-ic infrastructure needs investment and bulletproofing – and oil compa-nies are working on it. Natural gas is the parent product to hydrogen, but wind-power, hy-dro-power, nuclear, and solar power all – in different ways and at different points – feed the hydrogen-fuel supply chain, so there’s been heavy invest-ment from oil companies. BP tells us they’ve spent $1 billion in alternative energy in 2012 alone, bringing to-tal investment in greener options to $7.6 billion since 2005. Oil and gas giant alike are jostling for position for the moment (if and when) hydrogen takes over on our roads. Both Exxon and BP have swallowed up
natural gas companies and are flex-ing their muscles in shale drilling and fructuring. It has, only recently, become techni-cally feasible and worthwhile to trans-port liquified natural gas over long distances by ship. So there’s global market potential in gas that there wasn’t before and, as it stands, there is still no global market or global price for gas. If it becomes the prima-ry source for fuel on the world’s roads, there will be a race to set prices and manage the economics of hydrogen – and everyone wants a casting vote in that process.
Efficiency, Bio-fuels, and the futureIn the short term, smarter fuel solu-tions involve working with the pri-mary power sources. BP Fuel Sales Manager (Aral) Stefan Mahler told Fleet Europe that prolonging fuel’s life
Petrol is still the order of today but tomorrow, when other alternative fuels are king, the oil companies want to be ready.
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Fuel consumption XL1 in l/100 km: 0.9 (combined), power consumption in kWh/100 km: 7.2 (combined), CO2 emissions in g/km: 21 (combined). Power consumption e-up! in kWh/100 km: 11.7 (combined), CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (combined).
Wow! Now!
The new XL1. The new e-up!
Introducing the XL1, the most fuel-efficient eco-friendly series vehicle in the world. It can travel 100 km onone litre of fuel, has a top speed of 160 km/h and can run up to 50 km in all-electric, zero emissions mode.Then there’s the new e-up!. A car that makes e-mobility available to everyone. It delivers 100 % electric,local emission-free driving, as well as powerful amounts of torque right from the start. Super efficient,it has a range of up to 160 km and charges in just 30 minutes. These cars represent a big leap in our quest tochange mobility, but it only takes two little words to describe them. Think Blue.
Sustainable development remains firmly at the core of our business strategy
You just wouldn’t writeoff the oil barrens.
Sustainability underpins everything we do
Our mission is to provide smarter, more efficient fuel
solutions for consumers
said Shell CEO Peter Voser in 2012
said Exxon Mobil’s Chemical Company president Stephen Pryor, at the 2013 the IHS World Petrochemical Conference.
said Jackie Fionda, BP’s VP for fuels marketing, in 2012.
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
is a team effort. “We talk with our customers. They ask how we can help them to reduce their CO2 emissions, and we work to give them options to reduce – because we see the future.”But longer term, oil companies are investing heavily in the alternative fuel infrastructure. Indeed, renewable energy generally is the fastest growing segment in global energy. Shell tells us they’ve been making bio-fuels for a genera-tion. In a March 2013 promo video, Shell VP Mark Gainsbor-ough said that because they’ve always made and blended liquid fuels well – bio-fuels is simply a logical extension of a winning business model. Thus Shell is a large distributor of bio-fuel and low-carbon bio-fuel processed via its Brazilian sugar-cane operation and claims the whole operation emits around 70 per-cent less CO2 than conventional petrol; from source to end. BP has also invested substantially in sugar cane ethanol production. BP processes up to 7.2 million tonnes of sug-ar cane a year for fuel harvest. They’ve also established proprietary bio-fuels research facilities in Louisiana and California including operations to extract sugars from the cell walls of cellulosic grasses and convert them into liquid fuels. Though Shell and BP are, for now, limiting their bio-fu-el produce to the Americas, the innovation and practices mostly sounds like green-progress.
Fossil Fuels – still king?Hydrogen and bio-fuels may lead the Fuel Race 2.0, but oil’s big boys aren’t turning their backs on fossil fuels just yet. Exxon, Shell and BP may be hedging bets with renewables, but in the short term, petrol is still king. “Our scientists say essentially that we – within the exist-ing upstream drilling techniques and within the economic framework as we see it – will rely on fossil fuels for between another 50 and 70 years to come,” Eric Verleye of BP’s Inter-national Key Account Management team, told Fleet Europe, “I’ve never seen a statement from BP where we see the end of fossil fuels.” Indeed, BP’s recent Mobility of the Future report, compiled by BP Europa SE in Bochum, stated in its summary that: “Petrol and diesel fuels will not be on their way out for a long time to come, and will remain indispens-able as energy sources on the road.”Exxon too proclaimed in 2011 that the world has enough oil to last 100 years. Even with a predicted 25 per-cent jump in consumption. It said even in 2040, 90 per-cent of the world’s transportation would still run on oil-based fuels. An Exxon press release from 2011 stated that ‘One out of every two cars will be either hybrids or some other alter-native-fuel vehicle by 2040’, but that 90 per-cent of the world’s transportation would still run on oil-based fuels. In 2011, William Colton, Exxon’s strategic planning chief, said vehicle mileage standards may push people toward battery-powered cars, but a generation on, the cheapest hybrids will be those that still use gasoline.
Hedging betsSo oil companies believe petrol is king – at least for a while – but things are changing. A glance at their public relations rhetoric enforces that. With the hydrogen race wide open, those with the mans of farming it are erecting the energy infrastructure to manage it, and in the case of the oil companies, they’re more than happy to tell us about it – but they still see petrol and diesel dominance in the short-to-medium future. Petrol is still the order of today – but tomorrow, when hy-drogen or bio-fuels are king, they want to be ready. ■
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Hyundai ix35
Inspiration. Engineered.
Fuel Consumption combined 8.5-5.4 l/km, CO2 Emissions 197-141 g/km
The case for and against integrating hybrid, electric, fuel cell and natural gas vehicles in to corporate fleets as well as the role of these powertrains in overall corporate sustainability are well discussed subjects hence it was, with a de-gree of apprehension, that I accepted the invite from Fleet Europe to add further commentary on these topics.
It was primarily the positioning of the brief around new alternative powertrains that convinced me to take up this opportunity since the
words ‘new’ and ‘alternative’ struck me as somewhat counter-intuitive when considering how best to meet the needs of the corporate fleet man-ager. Words define the message and in the case of alternative one finds via a thesaurus the words substitute, unconventional, unusual, marginal and out of the ordinary as alterna-tives for alternative. Such traits with-in a corporate environment, where assets and their performance need to conform, be understood and fit for purpose, are therefore likely to deter rather than attract.
Where retail customers are concerned new is largely accepted as being bet-ter than old however this rule does not equally apply in a corporate con-text. Take mobile devices as an exam-ple, there are few people who would choose against the latest Android or Apple model but Blackberry, in spite of all the upheaval and uncertainty with-in the business, continues to retain a share of the major corporate market for the reasons mentioned previously.The same applies where internal
combustion engines are concerned. Think company car and most would picture a fuel efficient, low CO2 emitting, mid-sized diesel vehicle undertaking journeys throughout the day and registering significantly higher than average annual mileage. Vehicles are working and depreciating assets that a corporate fleet manager must be able to cost and quantify in terms of reliability and durability therefore new and alternative are unlikely to score highly in the fleet procurement decision-making process.
So given this backdrop what is the future for alternative powertrains in a corporate context and what needs to change for their adoption to evolve and become an established part of compa-ny policy?
Meeting the needs of the Corporate Fleet ManagerI am confident alternative powertrains will find their way in to commercial fleets where the case is robustly made for their inclusion. Fleet vehicles are not bought as a lifestyle choice or statement; vehicles are brought into a commercial fleet to meet a specific need and to undertake a specific pur-pose. By understanding in some detail
what vehicles are being used for and the needs of those driving the vehi-cles i.e. company car, job need, pool car etc. so alternative vehicles which meet these requirements can then be considered.
Be it hybrid, EV or hydrogen the over-riding question in the mind of the corporate fleet manager remains – what impact will the vehicle have on my the total cost of ownership (TCO). This article cannot do full justice to all elements of TCO therefore I shall fo-cus primarily on depreciation.
Where purchase price is concerned the current position is clear; alterna-tives are more expensive than their equivalent petrol or diesel engine ve-hicles. Not only are they more expen-sive to buy new there remains limited demand in the used car market for al-
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Financial incentives are key in giving business the confidence to adopt alternative powertrain vehicles in their fleet.
P.31FLEET EUROPE # 68
Graeme BanisterDirector of Consulting Automotive &
Transportation, Frost & Sullivan
ternative vehicles given the unknowns related to ongoing cost of ownership compared to petrol or diesel equiva-lents.
Whilst some businesses, in the in-terest of early mover advantage re: brand development and corporate so-cial responsibility have been willing to absorb the additional upfront cost of alternative vehicles, the vast majority do not therefore incentives, weighted towards the corporate market rather than individuals, are essential to de-veloping a sustainable market for al-ternative powertrains.
It is this weighting towards the corpo-rate market that is key and this posi-tion has recently been recognized in the UK where subsidies available to retail car buyers for new electric ve-
hicles will be phased out whilst tax subsidies for company car drivers that choose electric will continue until at least 2020. In addition £500 million has been ring-fenced by the UK gov-ernment to support the development of low emission vehicles.
I believe financial incentives are es-sential in giving business the confi-dence to adopt alternative powertrain vehicles in to their fleet mix. Manu-facturers too have a part to play by offering comprehensive warranties that extend beyond the life of the first owner and through this commitment provide genuine assurances to count-er reliability and cost of ownership concerns.
Incentives however will not be effec-tive unless thorough use-case assess-
Conclusions
2013 may well prove to be a watershed year for alternative powertrains with the launch of the BMW i3, increasing Tesla sales and announcements from Toyota, Honda and Hyundai on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that will be available in 2014/15 giving further credibility and stimulus to this emerging industry. Frost & Sullivan believes this im-proved product mix, increasing levels of awareness and invest-ment by suppliers in educating customers of the benefits plus consistent adoption of targe-ted corporate incentives will in combination act as a catalyst for change and that corporate car sharing initiatives and last-mile logistics in urban areas will be key segments where the business case for alternative powertrains can be most readily made. Though much still needs to be done to create the necessary infrastructure to overcome ope-rational challenges Frost & Sulli-van expects to see new business models such as electric battery / fuel cell refurbishment services and charging point partnerships being developed in order to de-liver an end to end service that companies can be sufficiently confident in to then amend and uphold changes to fleet and company car policy.
ments are undertaken to ensure that vehicles being chosen to replace pet-rol/diesel vehicles are fit for purpose i.e. business needs can be met and the vehicle can be adequately fuelled, serviced, maintained and ultimately disposed. ■
P.32 FLEET EUROPE # 68
Ten Tipsto Go Green
Demand-drivenGoing green isn’t a one-size-fits-all deal – to make changes, you must know your starting point. So in-ventorise – and ask questions of your current fleet
strategy. How is fuel consumption managed and monitored? Are there alternative options? Are staff accountable for their travel? Are there holes in the budget? Set out your strategy and get others on board. People need to be part of the dis-cussion (see point 5.)Illuminating your current approach will highlight the areas crying out for improvements and show gaps that plugged. Make your green strategy ‘demand driven’.
Software is your friendSat-nav, driver monitoring, telematics – these aren’t tools to trip you up or report drivers’ short-comings, but helpful bolt-ons to greening the
fleet, showing inefficiencies – and offering suggestions for change; whether behavioural or in policy. From monitoring fuel consumption to route planning, insurance, and main-tenance – the learning curve and budgetary advantages that come from embracing tech often outweigh the upfront costs of implementation; and ongoing training and moni-toring. Intuitive safety measures are often a by-product of installing the right green tech – so there’s potential to cut back on injurious practice, lost work days, and mitigate against PR disasters whilst saving money and emissions.
You can only manage what you measure Next comes accurate and in-depth reporting at all levels as the strategy is introduced. Businesses are increasingly asked to measure and
report on health and safety, equality and inclusion, and cor-porate social responsibility (CSR) – so regularly analysing emissions and fleet efficiencies is the logical way to stay on top of your green performance. From drivers on the ground compiling fuel consumption and reports with smartphone apps, to embracing information from smart-boxes and telematics output – there are opportunities to asses and adapt based around on-the-job feedback.
Know your limits, set your limits Environmental awareness and going green – it’s not a fad and it’s not going anywhere, so best get to know the emissions standards you’re working to. The EU
target for average CO2 emissions may be x for manufactur-ers, but could your fleet aim for 10% below this? Or even 15%? The average CO2 weighting of the fleet is going to fall as manufacturers create more efficient vehicles, so this means the CO2 weighting of your fleet will fall too. Make provisions to keep lowering the bar and show your fleet is on-point; mov-ing with the efficiency gains of the time.
Your suppliers work for you And don’t forget it! Your green strategy relies on the credentials and integrity of the supply chain. Suppliers bidding for a contract are getting good at
incorporating in-depth emissions reporting at source and working with you for green gains over the tenure of your working relationship. Having accountable, green suppliers is as important as your own green business acumen – so ask questions of their performance, maybe suppliers need to up their game, maybe a competitor is more up to the job. Appraise their offering and performance against others. There’s evidence of good performance out there – take a look at the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Carbon Disclo-sure Project or FSTE4GOOD.
Going green is as much about the personal diligence of workers as it is about sourcing, policy, and tech deci-sions from the top-down. Here’s 10 tips on going green; showing that all hands at a corporation can exercise green fingers – and pull in the same direction.
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
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Alistair Millar
Communication and Feedback In the workplace, which groups of workers will be most affected by go-ing green? It could be the management, it could be the suppliers, but chances are those on the ground will feel disruption to their working
practice. Be sensitive to that and communicate changes in a timely, manageable, responsible, transparent manner – and, where appropriate, allow opportunity for feedback and focus groups. Change is happening – and your drivers will have a wealth of knowledge about what works and what doesn’t. Tap their knowledge – its best not to shut workers out the process. Employers may want to introduce a “Carrot and Stick” approach in the early stages of going green – that’s up to you. But buy-in is needed at all levels to make sustainability palatable to those most affected by change.
Embrace the change This point speaks more to those affected on the ground by any new top-down initiatives. Flick through to Jonathan Green’s 10 Points to Embrace Change article on page XX to digest tactics and mechanisms to open
the mind and welcome the change. Humans aren’t always keen on behavioural change but again, the new movement ain’t going anywhere – so get on board and enjoy a new experience.
Is travel even necessary? Before getting bogged down in installing efficient travel policy, prac-tice, and reports, ascertain at what point travel becomes unneces-sary. Do we really have to travel? Companies the continent over are
asking the same question – looking to make savings and hit targets. Clients, partners, suppliers and customers may be receptive to e-meetings via vid-eo-conference, opting for a quarterly instead of the monthly face-to-face, or agreeing to meet half way – geographically and financially.
Car-Sharing Car-sharing and ride-shar-ing is big news – not only is there the opportunity to dou-
ble up on journeys, decrease your motor pool without compromising convenience, and save money – but by inviting EVs into your shared fleet, you’re introducing cold employees to the concept of zero-emissions trav-el – who knows what the knock-ons will be. By asking workers to adopt and embrace EV technology and you’ll make inroads into any culture of mistrust or stigma around green cars and open the door for more widespread use. Taking baby steps into a new mobility as a service op-tions could too, in time, inspire rad-ical new approaches to business mobility.
Don’t eat it all in one bite and enjoy itThis is a new gener-ation and it’s a green
generation. Green fleets, low-emis-sions and sustainability aren’t buzz-words that’ll be gone in a year or two. Yes, there may be paperwork, moans and groans, upheaval and transition – so be careful not to eat all your changes in one bite. Intro-duce new concepts and technology steadily and with the right communi-cation, feedback and training mech-anisms. ■
Going green is like the birth of your first child – scary, daunting, and a hell of a commitment – but before you know it, it’s second nature and the pros will utterly outweigh any cons.”
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Eric Gibory
La Carterie goes hybrid
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
With its fleet of 104 hybrid vehicles, gift card manufacturer La Carterie is aiming to save 250 tonnes of CO2 per year for a cost comparable to using petrol-driven vehicles. The savings made in tax and fuel will cover the additional cost of the technology.
For many businesses, vehicles are the outward expression of their efforts to improve their en-vironmental credentials. Since 2010, gift card group La Carterie has been pursuing a compa-
ny-wide approach to saving natural resources and limit-ing the impact of its various business activities. At the end of 2012, the company’s directors decided to replace the entire fleet of vehicles. Until then, La Carterie’s car policy saw it pick its petrol-driven models from manufacturers such as Citroën, Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen. Now, every vehicle used is a hybrid, and the group has decided to entrust its car pool entirely to Toyota. The company’s employees are now driving either a Toyota Yaris, Auris or Prius, depending on their ranking in the company hierar-chy. “The Japanese manufacturer’s range met our spec-ifications in terms of safety, comfort and the structure of our commercial operation,” explains Claire Georges, head of sustainable development projects, adding: “The models chosen have all the features in the Toyota Busi-ness range, including parking sensors, satnav, hands-free kits and automatic gearbox, which drivers especially appreciate.”For La Carterie, switching to a hybrid fleet is a measure of its real intention to promote sustainable mobility. Sales activity is at the heart of the business and necessitates travelling. Rationalising this is the principal lever for reducing the company’s carbon footprint. Even so, the switch to hybrid vehicles was dependent on maintaining the economic balance of the fleet. “Today, hybrid vehicles enable us to meet both the environmental and social con-ditions set by management and the commercial goals,” Georges is pleased to report.
Positive outlookNegotiations with Toyota and Arval took place in Novem-ber and December 2012, which was a particularly fa-vourable time for obtaining attractive commercial terms. “We agreed the figures for each of the three vehicles and received rebates on the models and on all the orders,” continues Georges. “Thanks to the bonus, the exemption from company car tax and the projected fuel savings, plus the considerations made by Toyota and Arval, decid-
ing to go hybrid has kept the vehicle budget the same.” To further reinforce the economic and environmental ef-ficiency of the hybrid vehicles, Arval helped the group or-ganise training on environmentally-friendly driving. Almost a year after deploying its hybrid fleet, La Carterie carried out an internal survey to measure staff satisfac-tion. More than 71% thought that the hybrid technology encouraged a more considered driving style, 59% that their vehicle is more environmentally friendly, 59% more modern, 51% better to drive, and 50% quieter. On the oth-er hand, half thought fuel consumption was higher. But, says Georges: “The smaller size of the fuel tank - 45 litres in the Toyota Prius as opposed to 60 litres in the old vehi-cles - might explain this impression. We are working on validating the actual level of consumption so we can carry out a comparison using concrete data.” In terms of satisfaction, the staff taking part in the survey cited various avenues for improvement: the noise level when driving outside built-up areas, the size of the fuel tank, and pedestrian safety in view of the silent engine. Despite this handful of concerns, La Carterie is already planning to move on to the next stage. “The agreements with Toyota and Arval run to the end of 2014,” explains Georges. “At the moment we are once again looking into the technology that best matches our needs, while adher-ing to our sustainable development approach. We already know that electric vehicles won’t make the cut, even in an urban environment.” ■
71% of La Carterie drivers thought that the hybrid technology encouraged a more considered driving style.
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Powertrain warsDOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Did you know that the top selling powertrain in America was the Electric Vehicle (EV)? To put that statement into context you have to realise that the author of this article, Dean Bowkett of EurotaxGlass’s, is referring to 114 years ago.
The EV fall from favour was caused by a combination of factors including better roads, which encouraged longer journeys and thus highlighted the range lim-itations of EVs, the discovery of cheap domestic oil
and the mass production of internal combustion engines (ICEs) which meant a typical EV could be two to three times the price of an ICE powered vehicle.
Even the hybrid powertrain is not a new invention as Ferdinand Porsche combined two ICEs with two generators at the start of the 20th century to create the Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus, the first functional hybrid vehicle. Meanwhile Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) are merely alternative fuel types for the long standing ICE with both able to trace their first usage in vehicles back to the 1930s and 1940s which just leaves fuel cells as the only truly new technology being considered for automotive use, doesn’t it? Well not strictly speaking as the first fuel cell dates back to 1839 and Welsh physicist and barrister William Grove whilst the first actual fuel cell vehicle (FCEV) was an Allis-Chalmers Fuel-Cell Tractor built in 1959.
So whilst there is no truly new powertrain solution, recent fears over climate change has created a renewed interest in low emission transport and resulted in billions of euros being invested in producing cleaner ICE solutions and a stronger interest in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and FCEVs. This leaves us with a challenge to understand what will become the successful power source for the 21st century motorist and therefore what will have the highest demand in the used market resulting in the best residual values?
The obvious starting point is to look at the demand in the new vehicle market.
97% fuelled by diesel and petrolDespite the media attention around alternative powertrains, diesel and petrol ICE remains the dominant choice within the big 5 European automotive markets, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK (Fig. 1), accounting for c. 97% of pas-senger car (PC) and light commercial vehicle (LCV) registra-tions. 2004 was the turning point for diesel-fuelled vehicle sales when they overtook petrol sales and since then, the importance of diesel engines has grown, only interrupted by the infamous scrappage schemes initiatives introduced during the credit crisis period of 2008-10, where billions of euros where spent to stimulate new car sales which fa-voured smaller and petrol-dominated segments. The im-pact was short-lived and by 2011 the diesel engine hit an all-time high. With the current downsizing trend, a dimin-ishing difference between diesel and petrol prices, in those markets where diesel fuel was historically cheaper, and im-proved ICEs delivering better petrol fuel economy, the trend has seen a reversal in 2013 as the petrol market share has started to rise, up 1.8pp vs. a fall of 2.0pp for diesel.
Fig. 2: Market development of hybrids PC and LCV 2003-Oct 2013
Source: IHS Automotive (Copyright IHS Global GmbH, 2013. All rights reserved)
Alternative powertrains at 3.4% but risingAlternative powertrains have been experiencing a slow but steady rise over the past ten years gradually in-creasing market share to 3.4% at a relatively even cost to petrol and die-sel sales overall, although varying at segment level. But the most notice-able growth has been in alternative fuels like CNG and LPG in the tradi-tional ICE. This has been predom-inantly due to the Italian market’s strong sales push allied to a signif-icant increase in diesel and petrol prices and Italy now represents 93% of the European market for CNG and LPG vehicles with the remaining 7% being almost totally Germany.
However, whilst sales of electric ve-hicles and in particular BEVs have been much lower than many antici-
pated they are still growing. From al-most the start of this century hybrids have seen consistent steady growth across Europe (Fig. 2) and now ac-count for around 1.04% of total sales in the big 5 markets with a generally upward trend and reasonable sales in all markets. By contrast BEV sales, which really started in 2011 with the launch of the Nissan Leaf, only account for 0.21% of sales and 77% of that volume is in France and Germany. But it should be remem-bered that BEVs have had less time to gather momentum compared to hybrids and that hybrids were only at this market share as recently as 2006. The one unknown is FCEVs with a number of manufacturers announcing plans to start sales in2015 demand is as yet unquantifi-able. However the promise of being able to “fill the tank” as quickly as
an ICE powered vehicle does remove the range fear that keeps appearing in surveys for BEVs, as long as the refuelling infrastructure is put in place. FCEV should also potential-ly remove the battery replacement cost factor although the cost of fuel cells is going to play a factor in both the cost new and any future replace-ment considerations.
With increasingly stringent environ-mentally based legislation and new models being launched at a regu-lar pace, we expect that consumer knowledge and with it demand for alternative powertrains will contin-ue to rise and at a steadily increas-ing slope than before, with hybrids currently leading the alternative powertrain demand. That said im-provements in emissions and fuel economy show the ICE is still going
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to be the predominant powertrain at least until the end of this decade with petrol and diesel remaining the favoured power source although CNG and LPG offer some consid-erable cost savings this message is not yet reaching the end consumer.
Residual value trends by fuel typeWith new vehicle sales so low, observation data for used vehicles is still hard to capture and can be sub-ject to significant variance. However when we consid-er RVs we need to consider three main factors:1) Fuel price development: The higher the price is
for petrol and diesel, be it through world demand pushing up the price or taxation, the stronger the demand for alternative fuels and powertrains
2) Fiscal policies: Demand for alternative fuel types rise with tax breaks and other incentives over traditional petrol/diesel engines. But the current policies, which are heavily focused on the new car market, will result in an oversupply for the used car market and any such imbalance will therefore re-sult in low residual values.
3) List price premiums of alternative powertrains: CNG/LPG, hybrids including plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and BEVs currently have significantly high-er list prices when new compared to petrol and diesel vehicles. Whilst recent surveys show most buyers accept there is a premium to pay for new technology most used car buyer surveys put quality practicality and personal budgets (to buy and main-tain) well above the desire for new engine technol-ogy. When combined this puts significant pressure on the high list price of these vehicles resulting in lower percentage RVs and higher absolute depre-ciation. Technology improvements and economies of scale will reduce these list price premiums and thus lead to more comparable RVs for alternative powertrains, but only partially within the next few years.
Dean BowkettTechnical Director and Chief Editor at EurotaxGlass’s
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
Over the last few years residual values for all fuel types have been negatively impacted by the economic crises. Prices for used petrol and diesel models have gone down by more than 2%-points.
As European economies recover from the economic cri-sis RVs for all fuel types are expected to increase over the next few years, although the pace will vary by country. Most used car buyers will still opt for a traditional petrol or diesel vehicle although this will be increasingly sup-ported by an electric powertrain in some form as hybrid vehicles benefit from a trend for more fuel-efficient cars underlined by the fact that RVs fell by less than 2% during the recent crisis.
LPG and CNG vehicles are not expected to see any signif-icant growth in Europe except in Italy where the govern-ment and Fiat continue to push CNG models, resulting in higher RVs than for petrol but still lower than those for diesel powered cars.
The recent entrance of BEV models and the fact that FCEVs are still to be launched means there are very few used EVs to be observed in Europe and make any view of the crisis period irrelevant. However, demand for this new technology is low on the new and even lower on the used car market so far. The known anxieties surrounding EVs together with the high list prices are expected to con-tinue to depress RVs. However we expect RVs to rise with technology improvements (increased range and reduced replacement costs), further list price reductions, and new entrants, particularly at the premium end which will in-crease public awareness. But when comparing identically sized, equipped and positioned models in the market we still expect a long wait before RV levels of the other fuel types achieve those of their petrol and diesel peers. ■
Read alsoOn our website www.fleeteurope.com you can find a second article by Dean Bowkett, titled ‘The Economic Equation’. In this ar-ticle Mr Bowkett looks at the TCO equation of the various powertrains.
www.citroen.com
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With Mobility as a Service becoming the norm rather than the exception, will the fleet managers of tomorrow be looking for total mobility solutions?
Over 6 billion people, two-thirds of the world’s popu-lation, will be living in urban areas by 2050. To cope, our cities need to get smarter – and they need do it quickly. Fleet Europe looks at the transport challeng-es facing our cities and finds out how administrators are trying to transform transport networks for the better. ............................................................................
The city is like an organism. The trans-port network acts as the arteries carry-ing people and provisions around the city and enabling the economy to prosper. If
the arteries become polluted or clogged up then the city starts to suffer. Our cities are already struggling to cope with congestion and pollution. If the cities of tomorrow are to break free from the problems of the past a new approach is need-ed. It’s well worth keeping an eye on what’s hap-pening. Your fleet may need to radically change as a result.
DOSSIER I Green Fleet Management
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Learning from the pastThe economic cost of congestion in the European Union (EU) is about 1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) every year. It’s no wonder that congestion is a political hot potato. TomTom’s sixth edition of the Traffic Index revealed that, on average, com-muters around the world spend eight working days a year stuck in traffic. Commenting on the findings TomTom’s Chief Executive Officer, Harold Goddi-jn, said, “The traditional responses to tackling congestion, like building new roads or widening existing ones are no longer proving effective. The way traffic is managed needs significant change.” Surely, there must be a better way?According to a 2013 report from the International Energy Agency there is. It reports that improvements could help save as much as US $70 tril-lion in spending on vehicles, fuel and transportation infrastructure between now and 2050. There are many other reasons for taking action too, when presenting the report, IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said, “Urgent steps to improve the efficiency of urban transport systems are needed not only for energy security reasons, but also to mitigate the numerous neg-ative climate, noise, air pollution, con-gestion and economic impacts of rising urban transport volumes.”
Pollution risks city securityCities have a veracious appetite for the world’s population and its resources, with many observers claiming that the battle to prevent dangerous climate change will be won or lost in urban centres. It’s not just climate change to consider either. There’s local air pollu-tion too. The latest assessment of air quality found that 90 percent of city dwellers in the EU are exposed to air pollutants at levels deemed harmful to health by the World Health Organ-isation.
Interventions for cleaner less congested city futures City administrators are taking a three pronged approach to tackle the prob-
lems of congestion and pollution: bans, charges and changes.
BansBack in 45 BC, Julius Caesar, fed up with carts clogging up the high street, declared the centre of Rome off limits between 6am and 4pm to all carriages except those transporting high-rank-ing citizens. Over 2,000 years later Rome is still plagued by congestion, coming eighth in Tom Tom’s chart. What’s the response? Rome bans cars from the city centre.Rome is not the only city prevent-ing access. In the UK, London’s low emission zone prescribes maximum pollution levels for vehicles access-ing the road network. Boris Johnson, the Mayor, has also announced plans to create the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone by 2020 allowing only zero or ultra low emission vehicles in the UK capital’s central zone. German cities too have standards that must be adhered too. The “bans” in other parts of the world are more draconi-an. In Beijing the number of vehicles sold is capped. In Delhi, India, prior to purchase the prospective owner must prove to the authorities that she or he has a parking space. If the problems in Europe persist will we look eastwards for a solution?
ChargesCongestion charges for entering cities are not new. A decade ago London in-troduced one. Stockholm introduced theirs in 2006, whilst Milan, Italy, in-troduced an ECOPASS scheme in 2008, which charged the most polluting ve-hicles to enter the city, before moving to a full-blown congestion charge in 2012. Congestion charging can also be used to promote cleaner vehicles. Oslo, Norway, the leading light in electric vehicle (EV) sales, has a road toll system that pre-dates the London scheme and, like London’s, is favour-able to EVs.
ChangesIn Paris it’s the shared economy, with a focus on car and bike sharing and elec-
trification. The success of the Autolib car-sharing programme in Paris has seen the Bolloré Group win contracts in Lyon, Bordeaux and Indianapolis. Germany too is into car sharing with 450,000 members having access to 11,000 cars in 343 cities. With Mobility as a Service (MaaS) catching on, city dwellers are chang-ing their behaviours and the network is re-inventing itself. Mobility has be-come an exciting and energising topic. The fusion of public and private trans-port has created a new interface and encouraged administrators to think differently. For example, when the au-thorities in Seoul, South Korea intro-duced reforms that no longer reward-ed bus operators for carrying more people, ridership, speed and safety all increased. It might seem mad, count-er-intuitive and perverse but it worked. Where else could off the wall thinking reap rewards?
New ways of workingGovernment policy, tax incentives and other measures are being used to try and get us out of our automobiles and change our working practices. Am-sterdam, winner of the City Award at the second annual Smart City Expo World Congress, is held up as leading light. The Dutch capital won the award for its project on urban mobility where flexible, anywhere and anytime work-ing is encouraged alongside intelligent transport systems that connect drivers and manage traffic flows in real time. There’s much here for other European cities to learn.
Future proofing fleetsWith cities already charging for access and putting policies in place to restrict entry based on emissions standards, the writing is already on the wall. In the future, fleet policy will need to be responsive to stricter rules and regu-lations for city access. And with Mo-bility as a Service becoming the norm rather than the exception, will the fleet managers of tomorrow be looking for total mobility solutions? We’ll find out soon enough. ■ Jonathan Green
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Johnson & Johnson believes in a decentralised operating
model.
MANAGEMENT I Johnson & Johnson
An innovative and balanced approach
To be considered by a large jury of experts to be worthy of this title, the case has to be outstanding. Luc Dendievel of John-son & Johnson presented such a case. Here we take a look at some of the elements which made the healthcare giant’s fleet policy stand out from the crowd.
To be considered to be better than all the other fleet policies, a company has to demonstrate ex-cellence in many areas of its fleet policy. It also has to be seen to be leading the field, to be doing
things which other companies are not (yet) doing. One of the most obvious examples of this at Johnson & Johnson – and especially for a fleet of so many vehicles – is the funding method chosen. Johnson & Johnson has opted for self funding, an approach which was conceptualised and designed in 2005. Since 2012, this unique model has been fully operational across all sectors of the business (Pharmaceutical, MD&D and Con-sumer) in the relevant EMEA countries (37), and applied to a fleet of 14,000 vehicles where the critical mass exists or there is no risk to company assets. The key drivers of the self funding model are: to centralise procurement of fleet and increase economies of scale; to centralise asset management for efficiencies; and to opti-mise cost of funds by using own funds rather than leasing company funds.On top of this, Johnson & Johnson benefits from containing and managing the total cost of ownership, creating com-plete transparency of costs at a vehicle level, optimising tax
responsibilities (e.g. crossboarder leasing) and minimising risk in the disposal strategy through a balanced portfolio approach.
InsuranceThe concept of ‘doing it them-selves’ extends to insurance. Between 2008 and 2012 John-son & Johnson instigated a self insurance model, once again conceptualised, de-signed and implemented in EMEA where the self funding model is operational or criti-cal mass exists. At the same time the company established a European liability insurance
program, through one broker and one insurance company, to which all Johnson & Johnson EMEA companies can sub-scribe, depending upon local conditions. Johnson & John-son EMEA manages third party liability centrally. The fleet management operation also partners with SAFE Fleet (a fleet safety program) to increase safety for employees, and to reduce accidents and costs.
Supplier optimisationOver recent years Johnson & Johnson has gone down the route of reducing its supply sources. There has been a brand reduction from 47 brands to 7 preferred brands across all
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EMEA countries. The reduction to 7 preferred brands has helped the com-pany to contain costs, to develop stra-tegic relationships and still continue to provide choice for employees. The same strategy has been applied to fleet management companies, where there has been a reduction to 4 preferred companies. Once again, all Johnson & Johnson EMEA companies can subscribe to this policy depending upon local conditions. The reduction to 4 preferred fleet management com-panies, along with providing the cost and relationship benefits described above, has also enabled a continuous service to drivers to be guaranteed. Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide fleet supply strategy includes centralising the buying, selling and residual values
of the vehicles. Asset management brings with it risk, and to manage this risk, sophisticated in‐house data col-lection tools to monitor trends, includ-ing car disposals, have been devel-oped. These have allowed Johnson & Johnson to alter, increase or restrict choice with certain manufacturers, and in some cases, remove specific models from the local car policies.
International organisationThe ‘self-funding, self-insurance’ model, along with the centralised pro-curement and disposal policy, do not imply a heavily centralised fleet man-agement organisation. Johnson & Johnson strongly believes in a decentralised operating model. Within this model, the company has
established a Centre of Excellence (CoE) which is a hub and spoke organ-isational model where the central hub consists of experts in procurement, fleet management, funding, insur-ance, and safety, providing guidance and expertise. The country spokes are responsible for the elements that are better managed at local level: the tactical process and fleet manage-ment. To further strengthen this hub and spoke approach, two new govern-ing bodies are to be created, one at a pan-EMEA level (the EMEA Fleet Gov-ernance Board) and one at a country level (the Country Fleet Governance Board). At individual country level, this governance board will be cross-sector and existing mechanisms will be uti-lised and formalised to meet this new structure where available.
Shared benefitsTo ensure the experiences and best practices are shared, and to encour-age greater collaboration and interac-tion, an EMEA Country Fleet Manag-ers Forum has been created. And to ensure that the whole company ben-efits from the model, alongside these governance bodies, the CoE Hub (at EMEA level) and Country Fleet Man-agers (at country level) will play a key role in providing insights, support and
Johnson & Johnson has opted for self funding, an approach which was conceptualised and designed in 2005. Since 2012, this model has been fully operational across all sectors of the business in the relevant EMEA countries.
Johnson & Johnson in fleet figuresCompany: Johnson & Johnson
Sector: Healthcare
Vehicles worldwide: 28,000
Vehicles EMEA: 14,000
Fleet Manager EMEA: Luc Dendievel
Title: Category Director Fleet
“All my colleagues and I are very proud of the International Fleet Manager of the Year Award”, smiles Luc Dendievel.
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recommendations to help shape EMEA fleet strategy and country policies, and in monitoring their implementation. The Fleet 2017 program is set to ensure that progress made so far continues: it is designed to create a more seamless and continuous strategic approach to fleet management with a balance of centralised and decentralised decision making. Fleet 2017 will also implement invoice audit processes at fleet management part-ners to optimise efficiency in the invoicing procedures and to ensure invoices are based on agreed terms and conditions with appropriate supporting third party documentation. In cases of conflict between the local and central operations, Johnson & John-son has a pragmatic and realistic approach: the local car policy always prevails as it is aligned with local laws, regulations and HR policies. The local company car policies are maintained and enforced by line‐managers, in which compliance with the policy has become an integral part of the company’s Performance and Development Program.
Green and safetyHowever pioneering and inspirational a company’s fleet management process-es may be, it is inconceivable that its leader could be named ‘International Fleet Manager of the Year’ without a substantial focus on the safety of its drivers and on the environment. The global SAFE Fleet vision is set out as follows: ‘drivers around the world re-turn home safely at the end of each day’. The global SAFE Fleet mission is also designed ‘to partner with operating companies to implement SAFE Fleet through management support, training, communication, and awareness’. The basic rea-soning is in line with a company philosophy which Johnson & Johnson calls ‘Our Credo’. Within this framework is the following statement: ‘The safety and wellbeing of our employees is embodied in Our Credo and sets out the company’s responsibili-
MANAGEMENT I Johnson & Johnson
What the award means, and the next steps
Asked whether he believed there was one particular as-pect of his fleet strategy that stood out for the judges, and what the focus would be in the future , Luc Dendievel said, “I think it was the over-all approach of the program, not one particular issue that stands out. In the years to come, J&J will concentrate on fuel management with a tar-get of 99gr/km CO2 by the end of 2017, introduce decreasing CO2 caps per vehicle seg-ment, and introduce eco-driv-ing. We will also continue the completion of our self funding and self insurance model.
Receiving the title of Interna-tional Fleet Manager of the Year is not something entirely dependent on one person or one year’s work.
Luc Dendievel recognises this: “It is a great pleasure to have won, and all my col-leagues and I are very proud of the award. It means re-ceiving recognition for many years of hard work and inno-vative ideas, balancing cost with employee motivation, and the environment”.
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ties to provide working conditions that are clean, orderly and safe – in this case, the workplace being the compa-ny car’.Johnson & Johnson is clear on how these philosophies impact the fleet operation. Part of its ongoing policy is to implement an eco-driving program for smarter and more fuel‐efficient driving, while making best use of ve-hicle technologies, improving road safety and increasing environmental awareness.
Examples of the safety policy include a complete ban on hand-held phone calls while driving, the selection of 4 or 5 star ratings vehicles based on repu-table new car rating system, including NHTSA, IIHS, ANCAP, Euro NCAP, and other established organizations that publish vehicle safety ratings. Also mandatory at Johnson & Johnson are three‐point safety belts for driver and all passengers, front and back seats, anti-lock brakes (ABS), dual front driver and passenger airbags.
Emissions reductions It would not have been possible to achieve the progress made in the area of ‘green & safety’ by Johnson & John-son without measuring progress and looking for even more improvement. Between 2008 and 2012 the company reduced the average CO2 emissions
of the vehicles in its fleet from 168 grams per km to 138 grams. Ongoing action includes reducing CO2 through better use of technology, influencing driver behaviour and reducing mile-age driven. Johnson & Johnson will also maintain tighter control on car selection through the configurator. Moving forwards again, there is anoth-er example of how the local and cen-tral aspects of the operation interact. The current EMEA policy has annual target reductions of CO2, and also a maximum CO2 cap included. The next generation policy will be more defin-ing, where by each vehicle segment across OEMs will have a cap, which decreases every year. The local car policies translate the EMEA policies into a car choice which incorporates CO2 reduction, CO2 caps, maximum CO2 emissions and preferred brands. Specific brand models may vary from country to country based upon local laws, regulations and specific HR policies. The corresponding vehicle configurators only contain vehicle specifications in line with the local car policies. These specifications are reviewed twice in the year in line with market evolution. Johnson & Johnson is also exploring hybrid and electric alternatives with specific OEMs and introducing new fuel policies at country level to man-age and reduce emissions. ■
Optimise cost of funds by using own funds rather than
leasing company funds.
Tim Harrup
Tim Harrup & Steven Schoefs
With the support of
The current EMEA policy of Johnson & Johnson has annual target reductions of CO2, and also a maximum CO2 cap included. The next generation policy will be more defining, where by each vehicle segment across OEMs will have a cap.
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About LuxotticaLuxottica Group is a leader in premium, luxury and sports eyewear with approximately 7,000 optical and sun retail stores in North America, Asia-Pacific, China, South Africa, Latin America and Europe.
Proprietary brands include Ray-Ban, Oakley, Vogue-Eyewear, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Alain Mikli and Arnette, while licensed brands include Giorgio Armani, Bulgari, Burberry, Chanel, Coach, Dolce & Gabbana, Donna Karan, Polo Ralph Lauren, Prada, Starck Eyes, Tiffany and Versace.
In addition to a global wholesale network involving 130 different countries, the Group manages leading re-tail chains in major markets, including LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and ILORI in North America, OPSM and Laubman & Pank in Asia-Pacific, LensCrafters in Chi-na, GMO in Latin America and Sunglass Hut worldwide.
The Group’s products are designed and manufactured at its six manufacturing plants in Italy, two wholly owned plants in the People’s Republic of China, one plant in Brazil and one plant in the United States.
Italian-based eyeware company Luxottica walked away with not just one, but two first prizes at the Fleet Europe Awards in Prague in November. Fleet Procurement Manager Laura Gobbis made her way onto the stage to receive the International Fleet Green Award, and was clearly delighted a few minutes later to hear her name called out once again for the International Fleet Mobility Award. These two aspects of the company’s policy are clearly linked.
A good place to start to look at the green fleet pol-icy of Luxottica is the company’s CO2 emissions levels regulations. The policy was started in 2010 and it sets out clear rules. These are stat-
ed to be quite simply 150 grams per kilometer maximum for directors’ cars, and 120 grams for managers’ cars – with 100% compliance achieved throughout the compa-ny. These levels are revised each half year. Ensuring this perfect level of compliance is carried out via the car pol-icy issued by the corporate operation. This is sent to the long term provider: Luxottica uses one leasing company but no external fleet management company.
Cars are ordered via the car configurator which is set on the basis of the corporate car policy. Luxottica has im-plemented an international car policy which includes a company car grid and enables the company to have a har-monized approach for all territories with common rules and procedures. The harmonized car grid stipulates a limited number of vehicle models from the four select-ed OEM’s. All suppliers selected must meet Luxottica’s expectations.
The main criteria are: service quality, ability to provide KPIs and meet the agreed levels, global approach, competitive pricing strategy, partnership approach capabilities.
MANAGEMENT I Luxottica
Seeing the world through green-tinted glasses
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In the future Laura Gobbis and her company Luxottica will look at how to integrate electric cars in the car policy and use car-sharing initiatives to further optimize employee mobility.
Luxottica in fleet figuresSector: Design, manufacture, distribution
and sale of fashion, luxury and sports eyewear
Vehicles worldwide: 70,000
Countries present: 130
Fleet Manager: Laura Gobbis
Job title: Fleet Procurement Manager
Responsibility: Global, except USA and Australia
Number of cars: 1,500
Quarterly scorecards and a satisfaction survey are two of the ways in which supplier service is measured. Local specificities are taken into consideration, but overall the car grid is applicable at global level.
ReductionsIn concrete terms, average engine sizes for directors’ cars have moved down from 2.8 litres in 2009 to 2.0 litres now.For managers’ cars the figures are 2.0 litres and 1.6 li-tres respectively. The power output of the cars has also reduced, from 220 to 180 PS for directors and from 150 to 120 PS for managers.
The resulting reduction in CO2 emissions across the whole fleet – and in line with the target – is from 155 grams in 2009 to 127 grams now. Luxottica has benchmarked its results against the market. In all cases, the results achieved by the company are better than the market av-erage. The car policy is encapsulated in car policy grids known as ‘Green & safe’ and ‘Super Green’.
Cost benefitsThe CO2 emissions levels bring with them added advantag-es in terms of cost. Luxottica favours high efficiency die-sels with low C02 emissions which are attractive in terms
of rental costs (similar to the cost of other vehicles) and have high residual values. Leasing costs are measured through quarterly reporting, which highlights evolution in this cost area. Benchmarking is undertaken with compet-ing suppliers (rental companies), with the additional level of industry benchmarking against other companies of Lux-ottica’s sector.
The fuel spend itself is surveyed using reports highlighting consumption and cost. The implementation of telematics devices will enable further KPI’s to be established – this is at pilot phase.
MobilityThe very high level of cars in the Luxottica fleet gives a clue as to the overall objectives of the company in this respect. Luxottica has a policy of reducing the number of cars it operates – ‘Luxottica Zero Cars’ – and of encour-aging other ways of travelling.
The mobility policy fits in with the overall fleet policy and in particular with the green policy. These include the ‘Bike Me’ scheme and the policy of having a car-sharing scheme, for personal cars and between different loca-tions. There is substantial high-level buy-in for this mo-bility policy, including HR, International Purchasing and
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The reduction in CO2 emissions
across the whole fleet is from 155 grams in 2009 to 127 grams now.
the department dedicated to Zero Waste. All of the programme comes within the context of Luxottica’s corporate social responsibility policy. The mobility project is also instigated using a ‘top down’ approach. Corporate has been the first part of the company to bring the policy into action, and all subsidiaries are following suit. All of Luxottica’s offices are equipped with video-conferencing facilities in order to reduce travel even further, and Skype is provided on re-quest. The entire travel and mobility policy is the responsibility of Luxottica’s ‘Shared Services’.
Moving forwards, the view of Luxottica is that ‘electric cars are the future’. However, there is a more muted opinion where hybrids are concerned: these are considered not to be suitable for high mileage fleets. The company is ready to integrate range extended electric vehicles into the fleet, and to operate pure electric vehicles for urban use. ■
Taking the program forwardAsked how Luxottica intended to capitalise on her awards suc-cess and move on even further, Laura Gobbis said: “We will improve safety for drivers with training and newsletters. We will also increase the level of safety options in the cars. Where mobility is concerned, car-sha-ring programs will be launched and we will be looking at electric vehicles”.
And her top tips for fleet ma-nagers: “Be passionate and innovative, ensure the involve-ment and endorsement of the top managers, and build strong partnerships with suppliers”.
Tim Harrup
MANAGEMENT I Luxottica
The car policy of Luxottica is encapsulated in car policy grids known as ‘Green & safe’ and ‘Super Green’.
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Unravelling International Fleet Management
The car policy of Luxottica is encapsulated in car policy grids known as ‘Green & safe’ and ‘Super Green’.
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54% of fleet managers are
looking on ways to optimise their
Global Fleet Management
Fleet Europe has joined forces with GE Capital to bring you the first ever industry-wide survey on car fleet policy. What is the car policy issues facing your peers? How are they seeking to overcome the challenges? What’s top of the agenda for 2014 and beyond? We uncover the trends and focus on the benchmarks that will lead to effective fleet man-agement in a recovering economy.
Whisper it very quietly, but there’s talk of an economic recovery. The Organisation for Eco-nomic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicts the euro area will witness a gradual
recovery, with growth of 1% in 2014 and 1.6% in 2015.* This brighter outlook is reflected in the findings of the GE Capital Car Policy survey, with 34%of the fleet managers surveyed expecting their fleet size to in-crease in size over the next 24 months. A further 46% expect numbers to remain stable, with a fifth predicting a decline.
Creating new opportunities for value creationDespite improving economic conditions, fleet managers still face challenges and the message from the boardroom is clear: further savings will need to be secured in 2014. The 2013 Car Policy re-port explores the common challenges and opportunities facing fleet profession-als, with its findings based on an online survey completed by over 70 companies that collectively manage in excess of 150,000 vehicles. “Developing and implementing an international fleet man-agement strategy is a complex exercise requiring deep knowledge of a wide range of key elements”, says Majk Stri-ka, New Relationships Development Leader, at GE Capital. “This first ever industry-wide survey provides fleet manag-ers with fresh perspectives on current trends in European Fleet Management to aid strategic execution of fleet man-agement.”
Going beyond the old boundariesIn the quest to achieve savings fleet leaders are eager to get a better handle on international operations, with 70% stat-ing that they will be seeking to enhance international cover-age and centralise their policies to create additional value.
Going global is not a straightforward pro-cess though. 54% are challenged by glob-al fleet management, and a further 13% stated they would like to have more ex-pertise and knowledge of local markets. Commenting on the evolution of the As-traZeneca fleet, Andy Leeden, Global Fleet Category Manager, AstraZeneca, said, “Globally the fleet size will remain stable, but the trend is that the fleet is moving. It’s moving eastwards. There will be a decline in Western Europe and North America, but growth in the emerg-ing markets. Our fleet follows the de-mand for our medicines.” Overall 40% of respondents manage their fleets at a local level, a third at a Europe-
an level and just 17% take a global approach. It is perhaps not surprising then that there’s a demand for support when scaling up the geographical scope of fleet management.
Evidencing emissions managementAnother key trend revealed by the report is the rise in emis-sions management. 62% of companies surveyed have CO2 emission restrictions, compared to just 36% in 2008. For al-most two thirds (62%) emissions are limited at between 130 – 140gCO2/km, whilst 11% limit emissions to an impressive range of 110 - 120 gCO2/km.
MANAGEMENT I Car Policy Survey 2013-2014
Sharing experiencesto create excellence
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Laetitia Fernandez & Jonathan Green
Robert Patrick, EMEA Regional Sourc-ing Manager at MSD, has established reductions targets that complement and exceed his company’s ambitions of a 10% overall reduction in Green-house Gas Emissions between 2009 and 2015. He said, “We have a re-duction target based on the new fleet weighted average. This year the tar-get is 121 grams, next year it is 117 grams and it drops 4 grams each year.”
Driving change through changing behaviour61% of respondents believe that in-fluencing driver behaviour is pivotal in achieving business objectives. 41% are looking to reduce damages and accidents by influencing driver be-haviour, whilst three in ten have iden-tified changes to driver behaviour as
a way of reducing CO2 emissions.At present just under half (48%) of surveyed companies have a be-havioural change programme, but expect to see the number rise. Also Telematics is seen as an important tool in making change happen, but today only 22% of the survey respon-dents are already using telemat-ics systems to monitor driver be-haviours. Luc Dendievel, Category Director Fleet EMEA at Johnson & Johnson, commented “Behaviour of the driv-er is the key. We’ve been providing driver training for many a year at Johnson & Johnson, and we’ll be supplementing driver training with eco-driving from next year.”
Focusing in on fuelWith the price of fuel on the rise and ac-counting for an increasingly proportion of the TCO, fleet leads are honing in on fuel costs with 48% looking to change their approach.72% of respondents currently monitor the fuel consumption of their drivers, and expect to see increased scrutiny. The survey also finds that 42% of the fleet managers surveyed are willing to have a fuel card with international cov-erage, whilst 38% would like to manage fuel costs and track fuel consumption. With 85% of respondents providing fuel for private use are we set to see a change in policy relating to the private use of fuel if prices continue to rise?
REFERENCES* www.oecd.org/newsroom - Last accessed 19. December 2013
The numbers• Survey findings based on
responses of over 70 companies
• Companies manage 150,000+ vehicles
• 60% manage their fleet internally
• 80% of fleet managers expect their fleet to remain stable or increase in size in the next 24 months
• 80% use at least two lea-sing providers to finance their company cars
• 62% of companies sur-veyed have CO2 emission restrictions
What kind of active measurements have you implementedto limit emissions/pollution?
Do you have a program in place aimed at influencing DriverBehaviour?
Engine reduction and imposed fuel type are the most popular measurements to limit emissions.
Today 48% of fleet managers do have a Driver Behaviour program in place.
It’s all about peopleFleet management is a people busi-ness. If change is to happen fleet managers need to listen to their driv-ers and engage with suppliers. And where will they be doing this? They will be active across continents and globally, as geographical boundaries are pushed towards international and global fleet management. ■
Find out moreThis article presents just a snapshot of the survey findings. Benchmark the performance of your own fleet and highlight opportunities for optimisation by viewing the full report on the Fleet Europe website or by scan-ning the QR code.
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MANAGEMENT I Nestlé
Safety first secures results
Fleet and driver safety is not something that sits on the side lines in the Nestlé Group, it’s slap bang in the centre of fleet policy. We spoke with Andrzej Sacha, the 2013 winner of the International Fleet Safety Award at the latest Fleet Europe Awards, to hear why safety matters and how policy is being implemented to achieve results.
The World Health Organisa-tion estimates that there were 1,240,000 deaths on the world’s roads in 2010.*
Across the European Union in 2011 there were 30,000.** These statistics only tell part of the story. For every death on Europe’s roads it’s estimat-ed there are 4 permanently disabling injuries, such as damage to the brain or spinal cord, 8 serious injuries and 50 minor injuries. It’s a sobering thought. The Nestlé Group is not backwards when coming forwards about the importance fleet and driver safety. Safety is the starting point of the FMCG giant’s fleet strategy. It is not seen as something that is a nice to have. This was why Andrzej Sacha was rewarded with the 2013 Inter-national Fleet Safety Award. The Fleet Europe Awards’ jury were tak-en aback with Nestlé’s comprehen-sive and global approach to fleet and driver safety.
Safety firstFor many in the fleet community the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the starting point for OEM negotiation. Not at Nestlé. In setting out the criteria to select OEM’s Nestlé lists
safety features ahead of the TCO. Purchasing the safest vehicles is just the starting point. Once the ve-hicle is on the road, driver and fleet safety becomes a risk management exercise. To identify and manage fleet safety Nestlé Group Risk utilis-es a Virtual Risk Management tool, based on the Haddon Matrix. The Haddon Matrix is the most com-monly used model in injury preven-
tion field and the tool developed by Nestlé is available to all of its dif-ferent businesses around the world. Using the tool business units can take control of their own operations and appraise risk from a cost, brand, business and societal perspective. For example, with its expanding geo-graphical reach Nestlé is conscious of risks in markets with less devel-oped road safety standards and is able to reflect this in the tool.
Risk based approachThe risk management team has played a pivotal role in putting mo-tor fleet loss prevention procedures,
Virtual Risk Manager (VRM)The online Virtual Risk Management (VRM) program, implemented in collaboration with Interactive Driving Systems and Zurich, is a data warehouse that pulls together several safety critical datasets including the online modules for driver risk assessment and coaching, electronic licence checks, vehicle inspections, collisions, fines and telemetry data. The system integrates the various datasets into a DriverINDEX ranking drivers in terms of the level of risk that they pose. The system also allows managers to perform licence checks as and when they wish, as do so automatically in countries like the UK and USA where government systems exist.
Nestlé in fleet figures• Company: Nestlé
• Sector: FMCG
• Employees worldwide 339,000
• Fleet Manager: Andrzej Sacha
• Job title: Global Fleet Solutions Manager
• Responsibilty Global (86+ countries)
• Number of vehicles: Over 30,000
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Don’t just look at your immediate fleetAndrzej Sacha believes that fleet safety culture should not be simply restricted to a company’s own drivers. When we him asked how he would be moving forward with safety in Nestlé Group, he had this to say: “The main steps the Nestlé Group will be taking to improve safety will be further engagement with major markets in Africa, Asia and LATAM on a number of levels. We will be ensuring that Car Policies have the ne-cessary safety components with regard to minimum vehicle configuration, conti-nuous driver training and in some cases the utilisation of telematics to assist safe dri-ver behaviour. In addition to this we will be working on the safety culture of the drivers, and also that of our distributors on these markets. In a number of countries in Africa, we are already working with organi-sations including the United Nations to improve road safety and reduce road fata-lities. Nestlé has signed up to the UN ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020’ as an important part of our ap-proach to fleet safety”.
Tip“Drivers are our most impor-tant asset. External parties are equally important too as they are our customers. So, my one tip for fleet mana-gers looking at fleet safety is not to just think about your own fleet. Include contrac-tors and other stakeholders in your approach”.
programs and processes ‘on the map’ across the Nestlé Group. A global road safety committee and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) has been created to support the pro-gramme, with the committee chaired by Head of Group Risk Services. The Safety, Health and Environment group also sit on the committee and have played a big part in putting to-gether a global fleet safety tool kit. The toolkit includes: fleet safety pol-icy and pledge; 10 Point Safe Driving Program Checklist; driver hand-book; culture pack implementation plan for VRM; safe vehicle selection policy; Nestlé case studies; and con-tractor standard and audit for truck and bus service providers.
An integrated approachThe Nestlé Occupational Safety and Health Standard includes a section on Driving Safety, which has helped to ensure that fleet operations have become part of the firm’s health and safety DNA. Over time collaboration between business units and Group’s has broken down, and with this silo based thinking has been eroded. At a local level, standards developed for Nestlé transport and logistics contractors and other vendors are audited after being risk assessed,
and individual country stakeholders are encouraged to focus attention on fleet safety and risk management using the toolkit.
Driving for a better businessThe best planning and preparation is at risk of going out of the win-dow when the driver opens the car door. The driver is the lynchpin in a safe fleet. Drivers are required to complete an online Privacy Notice, and a Safe Driving Pledge that in-cludes a commitment to doing the right things. There is also a Risk Foundation policy awareness mod-ule to complete that demonstrates drivers understand the policy, and a Policy Acknowledgement Notice to confirm their compliance. The VRM programme also includes an online ‘RiskCOACH’ module which focuses on key risks such as driver attitude, speed, driver distraction and driving in bad weather. Drivers at Nestlé are amongst the first in the world to use the online modules, with the VRM automatically identifying the risks impacting the Nestlé Group and sug-gesting which behavioural elements it wishes to reinforce. ■
The current EMEA policy of Johnson & Johnson has annual target reductions of CO2, and also a maximum CO2 cap included. The next generation policy will be more defining, where by each vehicle segment across OEMs will have a cap.
REFERENCES* http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/en/ Last accessed 17. December 2013** http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/specialist/statistics/ Last accessed 17. December 2013
Tim Harrup & Jonathan Green
With the support of
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BUSINESS I News
Johnson Controls honours LeasePlan with Leadership Award Johnson Controls has named LeasePlan as one of their key suppliers. LeasePlan received a ‘Johnson Controls Leadership Award’ at the annual Johnson Controls Supplier Excellence Recognition Award ceremony held in Milwaukee. This award recognizes suppliers for their achievements in the areas of innovation, sustainability, continuous improvement, global growth and customer satisfaction. LeasePlan has been providing interna-tional fleet management services to Johnson Controls since 1997.
New record for Daimler Financial Services
For the first time in its history Daimler Financial Services is financing more than three million vehicles. Daimler’s financial arm is now financing about half a million more vehicles than it was three years ago. The company broke records in the first ten months of 2013 and new business, which is understood as the equivalent of all newly con-cluded financing and leasing contracts, grew six percent in the first ten months of the year, to 33 billion euros. At the end of October, DFS had reached a contract volume of 82 billion euros, a three percent increase over the end of 2012. Around the world, Daimler Financial Services fi-nances four out of every ten Daimler vehicles delivered. Daimler Financial Services expects to see further growth in the coming year.
Autorola expands business in Italy and PortugalRemarketing company Autorola has announced two ma-jor contracts in its European operations. Firstly, Italy’s largest bank UniCredit Banca will use Fleet Monitor to manage repossessed vehicles across its 21 regional stock yards. This includes the management of vehicle defleeting, inspection for damage, documentation and spare keys, undertaking any repairs and then remarket-ing the vehicles to their national buyer base. A total of around 4,500 assets are set to be managed nationally by Fleet Monitor each year. In Portugal, Autorola has de-veloped a Branded Site transaction platform for Finlog and which provides more than 250 of its group dealers with access to their ex lease and daily rental vehicles. The aim is to offer dealers defleeted cars quickly and efficiently through the online channel to speed up the sale process and maximize residual values.
ALD Remarketing website makes 200,000 sale In a sign of the rapidly developing new face of vehicle remarketing, ALD Automotive has just announced that it has sold its 200,000th end of contract vehicle via inter-net. As the internet becomes ever more important as a channel for remarketing, ALD launched a dedicated site for mobile devices in October, and is following this with a special application for Apple and Android smartphones. The ALD Remarketing website, called ALD Carmarket, covers 22 countries and offers vehicles of all segments. ALD intends to extend this geographical coverage to all 37 countries in which it operates, with a target of achiev-ing 75% of all sales of used cars via the internet by 2015.
From left to right: Alex Molinaroli - CEO, Johnson Controls; Jose Luis Criado - Managing Director, LeasePlan International; Tom Casey - National Vice President Client Relations, LeasePlan USA; Yammel Sanchez - Global Director of Indirect Procurement, Johnson Controls; and Terry Nadeau, VP Global Procurement, Johnson Controls.
Today the ALD Carmarket remarketing website covers 22 countries and offers end of contract vehicles of all segments.
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Mobileye takes top spot
BUSINESS I International Fleet Industry Award
The car fleet and automotive industry, at all levels, continue to develop new products and services to meet the needs of fleet customers. These may be in a variety of domains, as the 2013 International Fleet Industry Award podium showed again.
Mobileye, an Israël-based company which ex-ports its Advanced Driver Assistance Systems around the world, picked up first prize with its Mobileye 5 Series + Enhancement Box. The
Mobileye 5-Series assists the driver, by identifying dan-gerous situations on the roads and providing audio-visual warnings to prevent or mitigate a collision. These newly developed advanced driver assistance systems enable the driver to visualize these critical real-time warnings for the first time on a Smartphone. The Mobileye 5-Series features a number of safety and convenience functions: it reads and displays traffic signs (Mobileye TSR), automatically turns high beams on or off (Mobileye IHC), activates lane depar-ture warning (Mobileye LDW), forward collision warning (Mobileye FCW), headway monitoring (Mobileye HMW) and pedestrian and bicycle collision warning (Mobileye PCW) – all of these are provided in one unit.The Mobileye 5 Series + Enhancement Box has taken the technology of Mobileye to the next level with additional fea-tures such as, Adaptive Lane Departure Warning, Deactiva-
tion of cruise control during Headway Monitoring Warning and Tailgating, warning/ hazard light activation during ac-tivation of Headway Monitoring Warning and Forward Col-lision Warning. In addition, Mobileye has recently developed cooperation agreements with various leading FMS/Telematics compa-nies, in order to be able to provide Fleets with a turnkey solution. This solution includes all the in-vehicle safety as-pects of Mobileye, together with the capabilities to be able to provide the fleet manager with practical and precise infor-mation on driver behavior and risk driving by fleets drivers.
Electric AvenueThe second spot in the International Fleet Industry Award went to a company well-known for its developments in the field of mobility and green fleets – Alphabet. The Mu-nich-based company has recently introduced another el-ement to its service offerings: AlphaElectric. As the name suggests, this product is centred on electric cars, and in particular on making it possible for fleets to introduce them. AlphaElectric is designed to be a customer-oriented prod-uct to seamlessly introduce eMobility into (existing) busi-ness fleets solutions. Being customer focused, it analyses the potential to convert combustion engine equipped fleets into EV’s, supporting the fleet manager in the selection of appropriate vehicles to adopt the car fleet based on TCO
Mobileye, an ongoing processIain Levy, Director of Business Development at Mobileye, confirms that winning the award is not the end of the story: “We are constantly innovating and developing the products for increased capabilities and to make people on the road safer, to make companies and their employees safer and to make sure they get home at the end of the day safely. For us it’s a constantly ongoing process, striving to improve capabilities and accuracy even further to save people’s lives”.
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Tim Harrup
PHILIPPE BOTTEQUIN Traxall International
1. Why was Traxall International established?
“Many companies were telling us this: ‘Fleet management is only a part of our total mo-bility spend and we receive from HR and from the employees more and more re-quests around a mobility budget instead of a car budget. Is there a one stop solution to manage this? We are interested in providing a cafeteria plan for our employees but do not know how this can be managed in the most optimal and transparent way.’ Well Traxall International was created to provide efficient solutions to these issues.”
2. Where do you expect the notion of mobility to develop the most?
“I think that mobility will develop all over the place but faster in countries where the leg-islator is open to accepting flexibility in the domain. We know in Belgium for example that the ministry of finance and the ministry of mobility are willing to regulate from 2014 on the fiscal and social security impact of a mobility budget. In the more mature fleet countries this will be copied and adopted as this will help to reduce traffic jams and the cost which they bring.”
3. Do you think that mobility management will become a central part of companies’ strategies?
“This is already the case. Companies are interested in reducing cost, increasing pro-ductivity and offering flexibility to their em-ployees. A good mobility management strat-egy is part of the solution to achieve this. Not everybody is interested in a big car when he lives in the city just a short train journey from the office. These employees are more interested in having the flexibility to use a car when they one, and for the rest using their mobility budget in such a way that it fits their needs.” ■
3 QUESTIONS TO
Tim Harrup
and CO2 targets. AlphaElectric also consults on the necessary charging infrastructure and offers solutions for further mobility needs, such as corpo-rate car sharing and / or add-on-mo-bility. In the consultation process be-fore adoption of the system, the fleet customer is able to simulate different scenarios, thus always focusing on his needs. The analysis result will always tie the CO2 savings to the TCO, mean-ing that with a maximum penetration of EV’s into a fleet there is a maximum reduction in CO2 emissions. Generally, Alphabet says, cost savings of at least 10% are expected with a reduction of at least 20% of CO2.
Let’s shareThird prize in the International Fleet Industry Award went to Vulog, a French CarSharing Technologies & Services provider for Public CarSharing and
Corporate CarSharing, from the On-Board unit to the Software business applications. The innovative product developed by Vulog is the ‘High Value Corporate CarSharing Service’. The main objectives of this technology are to facilitate the implementation of CarSharing Services in Fleets by offering a high value user experience to employees. The system also offers additional services thanks to the on-board computer and the Interactive Touch Screen (navigation, customis-able messages, eco-driving…). The system includes all on-board equip-ment required for CarSharing – on-board unit, RFID reader, keyholder, etc. The VULOG Back Office manages the CarSharing service and the fleet, and front end applications are in place for employees: website, iPhone APP and webmobile APP. ■
Ian Hucker (Opel/Vauxhall) and Iain Levy (Mobileye)
With the support of
P.58 FLEET EUROPE # 68
SCOPE I Mobility
E is for e-mobility,C is for change
The time to get engaged in e-mobility is now. That was the message from Carsten Kwirandt, Head of e-Mobility Fleet Business, Alphabet, during his presentation at a corporate conference during the Fleet Europe Forum 2013. Fleet Europe finds out how Alphabet is hoping to change hearts and minds of fleet managers as well as the powertrains of their vehicles with AlphaElectric.
It’s not surprising that Carsten Kwirandt is bullish about the fu-ture of e-mobility – after all he has a product to sell and targets
to hit. Ask a fleet manager if they are ready to experience e-mobility and you’re likely get a much more mut-ed response. Why such divergent views?
The reason may simply be the tim-ing. Carsten Kwirandt eulogised about e-mobility explaining that the fusion of technological inno-vation and changing market con-ditions is creating the perfect storm for a motoring evolution. Mr Kwirandt was talking about the present moment. He believes that it is in the here and the now that things are really starting to move for e-mo-bility.
Let’s take a look at the evidence. The e-mobility product is ready to be experienced and its performance is being proved. There are some stum-bling blocks around range and resid-ual values, but by and large e-mobil-ity is gaining acceptance amongst stakeholders as a powertrain that is fit for purpose. Carsten Kwirandt was suggesting to delegates that a successful e-mobility fit depends on the application of e-vehicles. There’s wisdom in his words.
Change may be simple to spell, but it’s difficult to make happen.
Convincing the fleet populous that e-mobility is a solution and educat-ing the market of when and where it works is a challenge that is get-ting easier. How is Alphabet seek-ing an audience with fleet players to do this?
Firstly, it is about raising awareness. By using the widely accepted TCO model for e-mobility AlphaElectric is engaging fleet managers with a language that they understand. Sec-ondly, Mr Kwirandt explained the process of supporting fleet manag-ers appraise the viability of e-mo-bility and the support available once e-vehicles are on fleet.
As easy as 1,2,3 and 4Mr Kwirandt explained the 4 step ap-proach to appraising whether, where and why e-mobility works. First-up, there’s in-depth fleet anal-ysis giving detailed information about electrification potential using the TCO model. In the next stage rec-ommendations are presented on the type and mix of ICE and e-vehicles that provide the best fit for a busi-ness’ needs, whilst in the third stage of the process, the all important top-ic of charging, is explored. A range of
Jonathan Green
Carsten Kwirandt’s goal is getting people into the driving seat and then letting them decide for themselves about e-mobility.
charging infrastructure options are offered to provide the power need-ed to make e-mobility happen, with partnerships in place with experts in the charging and installation in-dustry. And the imaginative fourth stage is where mobility services are wrapped around, offering corporate and leasing services, and driver support to give 360 degree cover-age. From driver training through to Flexible Mobility offers, which give drivers the freedom to switch to combustion engine vehicles for lon-ger journeys at short notice via 24 h hotline, AlphaElectric is looking at the big picture and plugging mobility around e-vehicles.
Carsten Kwirandt’s goal is getting peo-ple into the driving seat and then let-ting them decide for themselves about e-mobility. With AlphaElectric there are many reasons to open the car door, sit down and start exploring. ■
P.59FLEET EUROPE # 68
Carsten Kwirandt’s goal is getting people into the driving seat and then letting them decide for themselves about e-mobility.
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designed exclusively for executives of the world’s largest multinational commercial fl eets
After the successful fi rst edition in October 2013 in Phoenix, Fleet Europe and Automotive Fleet are happy to announce the 2014 edition of the Global Fleet Conference.
We have chosen the heart of Brussels, the European capital to bring together the Global Fleet Executives for this unique education and networking event.
With Global Fleet Managers, Global Fleet Suppliers and regional delegations from amongst others the BRICS, this event is not to be missed!
