Greater than 40 companies together with Ocado, the AA and Openreach have referred to as on the mayor of London to desert plans to increase the congestion cost to electrical vans.
On Christmas Day 2025, drivers of electrical automobiles will begin having to pay the identical £15 a day cost as these driving petrol and diesel automobiles in central London.
It will hinder the already sluggish take-up of electrical vans, the companies say. Solely 5.9% of latest vans offered in 2023 have been electrical, and final week the automotive business mentioned it was additionally struggling to promote electrical automobiles with out authorities incentives. The expansion in house deliveries has seen carbon emissions from vans rise by 63% since 1990, whereas emissions from automobiles has fallen over the identical interval.
Lots of the companies signing an open letter to Sadiq Khan – who’re backed by Clear Cities, the environmental marketing campaign group, and the Federation of Small Companies – have invested in electrical fleets. They are saying the present system, the place they pay £10 a yr to register every car as exempt, performed a “basic function” in these investments and that the choice to finish the exemption will inflict an “astronomical price” of £5,500 per car per yr on the companies which have already made the change away from diesel. Abolishing the exemption would undermine companies who’ve “taken on debt to put money into the air we breathe”.
“Ten years in the past, it was widespread to blow your nostril and discover black particulates in your handkerchief,” mentioned Edmund King, president of the AA. “This has fortunately modified. Reducing the low cost for electrical vans is a detrimental coverage which may backfire on the well being of Londoners and the economic system of London. We nonetheless have to encourage zero emission transport relatively than deter it.” The mayor has beforehand defended his resolution saying that the congestion cost was initially created to alleviate site visitors in central London whereas electrical automobiles have elevated from 20,000 six years in the past to 112,000.
Fewer than 3% of vans registered in London are electrical, and when the mayor supplied a £100m scrappage scheme for folks affected by the Ulez growth, simply 2% of vans have been changed with an electrical model.
A part of the shortage of enthusiasm is as a result of electrical vans are extra costly to purchase than diesel vans, and may be tough to cost as they’re too giant to slot in some public charging factors.
Electrical van gross sales within the Netherlands are twice as excessive because the UK and, final week, a Clear Cities report confirmed that 20 Dutch cities are creating zero emission zones the place all supply automobiles have to be powered by a battery or hydrogen. The mayor has dropped plans for a zero emissions zone in London.
Oliver Lord, UK head of Clear Cities, mentioned that Khan’s resolution was “at odds together with his observe file and his dedication on local weather”.
“Finally, small companies are these set to endure probably the most, with the progress in direction of a cleaner, electrical future choked off in an financial scenario already fraught with challenges,” Lord mentioned.
“How is it proper {that a} soiled diesel van pays the identical as a cleaner electrical car in probably the most polluted a part of the UK?”
Laura Timm, Federation of Small Companies London Coverage Chair mentioned: “Small companies throughout London have confronted a ‘price of doing enterprise disaster’ for one of the best a part of a decade and plenty of have ‘accomplished the fitting factor’ and invested in inexperienced initiatives inside their enterprise.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor mentioned that the Cleaner Car Low cost was ending as a result of the rise in electrical automobiles had diminished the influence of the congestion cost.
“Nonetheless, the Mayor recognises the problems raised referring to electrical vans, together with the significance of supporting these companies who’ve accomplished the fitting factor and moved to cleaner automobiles.
“We’re working with TfL to see what extra might be accomplished to mitigate the impact of this phasing out and additional incentivise companies to make the change to cleaner automobiles. That is alongside different initiatives together with freight consolidation and cargo bike deliveries. We proceed to work with authorities on nationwide measures that might make a distinction, together with the extension of the plug-in van grant.”
