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| MARCH 2022 | UTILITY WEEK
Analysis
Commercial vehicle take-up
will determine EV transition
Optimise Prime is a collaborative project in the capital involving
4,000 commercial vehicles that seeks to identify and overcome the
barriers to mass EV take-up by company fleets.
I
n August 2019, digital infrastructure and
solutions firm Hitachi Vantara – a wholly
owned subsidiary of Hitachi – fired up
Optimise Prime, billed as the world's biggest
electric vehicle (EV) trial, in tandem with UK
Power Networks (UKPN).
With the backing of Ofgem, and driven in
partnership with Royal Mail, Centrica, Uber
and Scottish and Southern Electricity Net-
works – the ongoing project seeks to unearth
the potential issues, and opportunities for
innovation, around the large-scale uptake
of EVs.
Harnessing Internet of Things technology
built by Hitachi Vantara to collect and ana-
lyse charging data from up to 4,000 commer-
cial vehicles in London and the South East,
Optimise Prime aims to test and implement
the best approaches for commercial enter-
prises looking to decarbonise fleets of vehi-
cles via solutions such as smart depot and
home charging.
Innovation in infrastructure
Hitachi Vantara's vice president head of
customers and industries, Martin Kochman,
tells Utility Week Innovate that while, in his
eyes, EV technology has reached such a level
of maturity that it is ready for everyday and
long-distance commercial use, he says effec-
tive solutions still need to be developed to
cut the cost of owning and running vehicles
– such as the ability to charge EVs outside
the electricity network's peak times.
"Moving the energy source for transport
from combustion engines is not something
the electricity grid was designed for, regard-
less of whether charging happens in con-
centrated locations — such as depots — or is
widespread at employees' homes or in public
places," he says.
"The UK's big commercial vehicle opera-
tors must overcome several obstacles before
they adopt electric vehicles on a large scale
– all the way from the up-front capital hurdle
to managing charging times. For this reason,
it's expected that a significant expansion of
the UK's EV charging infrastructure will be
