Go Ultra Low Forum – workshop 1 and workshop 2 feedback notes
Session 1:
•Feedback on the Go Ultra Low Programme
•What are the barriers that need to be overcome?
•What are the incentives that need to be in place?
What’s good about Go Ultra Low?
-City Centre LEZ – hopefully will address issue of how to tackle congestion/stop start nature which emits more pollutants (eg buses, lower parliament street)
-Good partnership existing already, building on this, needs to continue to be collaborative (although must make effort to bring in new faces)
-Good that it’s at an International scale, external pressure important for effecting change at the local level
-Demonstrator vehicles – maintenance people, skeptical, good to influence understanding to ensure more take-up
-Real intent in doing this – public sector drives the agenda, fleet to download
-Access to a grant scheme is good – but need more information
-Try Before You Buy options give confidence to businesses
-A menu of options is needed
What’s bad about Go Ultra Low?
-Question about whether the whole programme (in its entirety) has it been communicated well enough – where is it going to end up, milestones, what are the aims by 2020 –
-Need to involve all stakeholders (community side of Go Ultra Low seems weaker than the business side)
-General comment about traffic flow: Traffic flow doesn’t go well outside of the city, holding it within the city, Go Ultra Low needs to ensure its strategies fits into Highways England schemes
-EVs are sometimes seen as not mainstream and ‘quirky’ so it’s important that a try and buy scheme is set up to debunk the myths.
-Cost of initial entry into the market is a barrier, especially to smaller businesses.
-The lack of a wider infrastructure for charging is an issue – and maybe the perception of it is worse than reality. Need confidence of availability of infrastructure.
-Lack of access to rapid charging facilities.
-Concerns about the range of the vehicles
-Concerns about the potential tendering process through the local authority.
-Taxi’s – what if NCC don’t get the funding? will anything happen, really important to tackle – for taxis using EVS could have flexible licensing caps, reduced fees, taxi emission standards, rebates and financial incentives)
-Concerns about insurance – fleet drivers may ask questions about how try before you buy works and is insured.
-Nottingham is full of terraced houses and units where charging facilities would not be easily installed.
What’s missing from Go Ultra Low?
-Is the bike hire scheme well integrated into the bus/tram system?
-Can the new Robin Hood app show available locations of bike hire, can it show which routes have better air quality, show which routes are lower in CO2 (citymapper app can do this)
-Scheme to recognise and award businesses who are performing well, will help to incentivize further take up
-Advice on procurement – encourage other public sector organisations
-Residential incentives / behavior change, perhaps more needs to be done – Milton Keynes Promise; free or reduced parking or reserved bays, Polar network points experience; resident trial schemes (Bristol); discounted electricity for recharging; discounted residential parking permits
-ULEV salary sacrifice schemes
-Less focus on air pollution – cost will be the best hook for the public, what is tangible for them now
-Cars and vans should be made available to test.
-Training for the end user needs to be available – alongside confidence when considering repairs and maintenance.
-Charging hubs need to be easily available
-Opportunity to book a charging space ahead of time so you know you’re guaranteed one when you need it.
-Needs a strategy of how much focus will be on rapid and slow chargers.
-Locations need to go through a review process – EV drivers could be consulted after they have been drafted.
-Robin Hood Energy is a great integration, however how much of this energy is from a dirty fuel? Is there the possibility to make this greener?
-Great the programme has started, and is engaging businesses and stakeholders in this way
Barriers to the Go Ultra Low programme
- Chicken vs. Egg scenario has been a previous barrier – consumers don’t want to invest unless there’s infrastructure, and vice-versa.
- EVs never seem to go into a consumer’s mind when they are buying a car – they need to be seen to be more readily available, and come straight into a consumer’s mind.
- Family life may be a barrier – some families never know where they will be travelling, so are worried range might be an issue if they suddenly need to go further.
- Cost remains an issue, as well as the unknown costs of service, maintenance and repair.
- Vehicle availability is unknown – consumers want to know how long it will take to get a new vehicle.
- The industry seems to be very complicated – it needs simple information for simple people.
- Skills is a major concern – where can these vehicles get maintained? Are there the right number of mechanics in the City to cover the vehicles? How many garages are accredited?
- Business and resident attitudes, fear, misperception
- Need help with number crunching and comparing and calculating costs.
- Need support to raise awareness of buying from the second hand market.
Session 2:
•Suggestions for suitable sites for charging infrastructure
•What next to support you – information, events?
•Topics of interest:
•City’s Clean Air Zone and policies/environmental strategies
•Vehicle developments and choices
•Charging infrastructure
•Business support and interventions
•How would you like to be supported and involved?
Infrastructure
- Can we have greener energy to supply the additional posts?
- Solar car ports are growing in interest – can these be integrated in to Nottingham plans?
- Park & Ride scheme – how will we manage vehicles once they are fully charged? How will they be moved so that more people can charge?
- Bookings – can we have a scheme that will allow pre-booking of spaces to charge a vehicle?
- Supermarkets would be a great location – are there any plans for this?
- Will parking time limits be imposed on EV charging spaces so that everyone has access to a charge if they need to?
- Workplace parking levy – can ULEVs not be charged as an incentive to get one as a company car?
- Play off between Visitors, and Local people. How can we make sure that those that need to charge for work have priority over City visitors? Equally how we can we ensure that visitors have access to charging in the City – especially if we advertise ourselves as green?
- Can we invest in some inductive charging for taxis and buses?
- Suggestion was made that GUL funds the points being installed and getting them operational, but then the liability sits with the operator/host (maintenance, repair etc.) in order to reduce the dependency on public funds, and create a real business case model.
- What financial model will be followed? One member of the table expressed real concern as to the Ofgem obligations of Robin Hood energy operating the system, and the licencing, tariffing etc. Security of supply could be an issue here too.
- How can we ensure that vehicle drivers don’t take advantage of the incentives? If ULEVs can park in the city centre for free and we have hundreds of charge point why would they bother to park at a ride and drive charge point and get the bus in, when they could park directly in the Centre?
- Need the Enterprise Car Club to be more involved in providing access to electric vehicles – could help with try before you buy concept.
- Petrol stations (already has infrastructure but does it have the footprint), supermarkets, retail parks,
- Community hubs - leisure centres
- Joint services centers
- Retail ports and shopping centers
- New residential schemes - more input from developers and planning. Section 106 re charging infrastructure
- Should have charging points at Park and Rides
What further information would they like to have and what might be the subject of future events?
-Events to recruit and/or showcase early adopters. This was felt important to support up-take for ULEVs and also buy-in to the Go Ultra Low programme
-Need to engage with existing business networks but also try to engage businesses through new avenues to avoid the same players being involved
- Examples include: link in with business forums (Chamber of Commerce), rotary clubs, management agencies of business parks, development of new business parks and commercial car park agencies
-Programme could facilitate dealers who want to go to workplaces, saves workplaces the hassle – programme needs to showcase the new technology, need to have electric vehicles there, staff dinner time events from dealerships
-Events or resources to help individual business build realistic (realistic was emphasized) business case using real, demonstrable data). A lot of resources already exist, a case of bringing them all together and helping businesses make sense of it and access it easily
-Need a convincing strategy with clear Plain English, that is communicated early on, helps different stakeholders understand what milestones there are, how they can support and participate, and which resources are needed
- This should include information that businesses / public sector can copy and paste from to help make building a business case as easy as possible
-Business community has different demands, need to segment, target them individually (grey fleets will need to be treated different than commercial vehicles), one size fits all approach will not work
-Need to overcome issues surrounding new technology phobia, range anxiety with clear benefits
-Focus on the getting individuals to make the switch, cost, grants, are they aware, TCO has to be promoted
-Need to feel comfortable and confident with the terminology and feel able to ‘talk EVs’
-Need local champions (not local authorities) to be part of leading the discussions
-Need ‘evangelists’ and business advocates to spread the word.
-Need to understand what subsidies are available – does this link with ECOSAFE driving?
-Need to understand how this sits alongside WPL for businesses that have charging points on their premises.
How do they want to be supported and involved/engaged going forward?
-Kept informed via regular newsletters
-UoN and Broxtowe – Interested in applying for grants, both felt advance warning of timescales was important to help planning and get senior management buy-in
-UoN’s existing charging infrastructure is free to use to the public and should be promoted to encourage users
-General support with building business / justification cases
-Another forum once the strategy has been filled out would be welcomed
-Online information and resources are needed for sharing and cascading information and best practice.
-Would like to be informed regularly of progress and milestones.
-Charging points – exempt from WP?
-Events for architects and design schemes re infrastructures
-Fuller information, LinkedIn - has powerful groups, business clubs
-Support and engagement
-Single point of contact and a wide knowledge base
-Website and calculator to support EVS
-Comprehensive Go Ultra campaign
-Should link up with partners and provide opportunities to talk to counterparts in other organisations
-Have a combination of workshops and weekly updates with hot topics n conjunction with bi-monthly meetings and events
-Case studies from other businesses with honest experience
-Myth busting sessions
-Branding of go ultra needs to be widely recognized
-Number of events to capture difference audiences
-Retail and business support packages
-Need try out opportunities