Electric Vans in French Urban Settings: Obstacles and New Practices for Professional Users

Résumé En

Electric Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) have a major role to play in the future of European road transport, especially for transport and logistics operations in urban settings. Despite the increasing commitment of EU Members to promote electromobility and improved performance of electric LCVs, their uptake is still limited and economic, technical and operational obstacles remain. The aim of this paper is to describe the transition towards heterogeneous fleets (mixing conventional and electric vehicles), identify some of the obstacles to that transition and report on new operational patterns and adaptation strategies implemented by fleet managers to overcome said obstacles. Building on the information collected on professional LCV fleets in France from a previous dynamic analysis of the French national LCV surveys, we synthesise available knowledge about vans and their patterns of use in France. Then we complete the study with the results of 8 interviews with professional van users and transport operators, in order to reach a much deeper understanding of the technical and operational obstacles to the adoption of electric LCVs. We find that two main adaptation strategies have been identified and implemented by fleet managers with the aim of better operating heterogeneous fleets (mixing conventional and electric vehicles).