The John Lewis Partnership’s (JLP) Home Services fleet is starting to deploy electric vehicles, as the retail group looks to reduce its reliance on fossil fuel-powered transportation.
JLP has committed to transition 4,000 cars, vans and light trucks to electric vehicle by 2030, and this new trial focusing on Home Services comes as a wireless van charging initiative continues at its Waitrose store in London’s St Katharine Docks.
There are currently 350 Home Services vehicles in JLP’s fleet, and they provide home estimating and fitting services for John Lewis department stores.
Flexible Power Systems (FPS), an expert in electric vehicles and accompanying technology, is working with the partnership, establishing a mixed charging solution incorporating depot, public network and home charging.
Kate Cosco, JLP’s product services field manager, commented: “This is another step along the path of the John Lewis Partnership’s ambition to move completely away from fossils fuels in the fleet by 2030, saving an estimated 500,000 tonnes of CO2 between 2020 and 2030.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to test how electric vehicles work for us in Home Services. The team are extremely excited to get out on the road and to begin driving these new vehicles.”
FPS managing director, Michael Ayres, remarked: “Companies like JLP have to electrify their fleets to combat climate change.
“Replacing commercial diesel fleets with electric vehicles is just one part of the picture. We need to bring together the ecosystem of chargers, power management and operational interfaces required to keep fleets serving customers efficiently.”
He added: “Like many company car drivers, Home Services partners have a range of working patterns and living arrangements, we need to ensure we can offer a flexible and scalable charging solution to fit these needs via depot, home or public network charging.
“It’s essential to collect data through trials like this one, to inform and de-risk the very substantial decarbonisation investments in vehicles and infrastructure fleets are planning. One-size doesn’t fit all in fleet electrification projects.”
[Image credit: John Lewis Partnership]
