By Joanna Bundy and Georgina Box, Atkins 

Joanna Bundy is a senior intelligent mobility consultant and Georgina Box a graduate consultant in intelligent mobility and smart technologies at Atkins.

This blog post has been produced with Atkins, a CIHT Strategic Partner.

One group of electric vehicles that are starting to play a vital role in reducing emissions and improving air quality in our towns and cities is the fleet: mass public transport systems, that make up a connected network for passengers using them every day. As such, they’re also starting to demonstrate the concept of mobility as a service (MaaS). Behold, the electrifying power of the fleet.

While the take-up of private electric vehicles is slow – ownership in the UK is at just 2-3% – we are nevertheless seeing some very positive signs of fleet vehicles going greener. Increasingly, bus networks and taxi fleets are turning to electric thanks to new incentives, a growing recharging infrastructure to keep them running, and significant developments in electric vehicle technology. This is especially timely as the focus is sharpening across the transport sector as to how MaaS – the idea that various forms of transport can be smoothly integrated to be accessible on-demand for passenger journeys – can really start to take shape.

How Leeds is leading the way

Local authorities are making the first moves towards electrification of their fleet vehicles, and incentives are helping. In its pivotal 2018 report, The Road to Zero: Next steps towards cleaner road transport and delivering our Industrial Strategy, the Department for Transport outlines how incentives and support schemes are already mobilising to support ultra-low emission options for fleet transportation. It mentions how Leeds City council has already switched to using 44 electric vehicles, supported by 16 charging points in four locations across the city, with another 51 on the way.

Businesses too – operating fleets and vans and lorries – are being incentivised. The report states how it will “fund fleet reviews to focus on SMEs who often lack the organisational capacity to take advantage of efficient fleet operations, open to businesses that have at least one plug-in vehicle on their fleet now and commit to having them make up at least 5% of their total vehicle fleet by 2020.” To date, more than 140 private and public sector organisations have joined the scheme, and this number continues to grow. All of which is a hugely positive step forward – but to reach the ambitious targets in place to reduce emissions to zero by 2050 we will also need to focus on replacing vehicle journeys.

Taking MaaS from concept to reality 

We know that a modal shift, from private to public transport systems, will lead to fewer vehicles using the highways. This will inevitably result in reduced congestion, and improved journey times for customers. But if we’re to offer an attractive incentive so that customers make this shift, we’ll need to take MaaS from being a concept to a working reality. The good news is, by starting to electrify mass public transport systems now we can improve air quality, and reduce emissions dramatically, while also taking this first important step towards developing a zero-emission MaaS transport network.

Indeed, these are the aims of Transport for Greater Manchester, whose recent MaaS pilot scheme was aimed at exploring ways it can reduce congestion and improve air quality, while also increasing the availability, affordability and reliability of its services for residents across the region.

Moves of this scale will, of course, require support from significant new recharging infrastructure – but this development is easily within the powers and remit of local authorities to make happen, especially when financial incentives to do so are offered to transport network operators to make the switch. The really good news is, things are moving in the right direction, with new charging infrastructure to support electric buses already being installed in a number of European countries, including in Kiel, Germany, at the terminus of each line and in Oslo, Norway using mounted pantographs at depots.

Towards a cleaner capital 

This is happening alongside positive developments in opportunity charging points, described as a “rapid and intense blast of power at strategic points along the route, which can allow for a longer range” by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Recent trials of opportunity charging have taken place in Liverpool, the UK by Merseytravel and bus operator Stagecoach. We believe that once this recharging infrastructure is in place, the transition to a sustainable model of MaaS can really get underway.

In London, where transport is directly within the remit of Transport for London, and where there are more than 20,000 licensed Hackney carriages, we’re already starting to see electric taxis. Soon, we will see more and more of London’s 8,000 buses being added to their number and probably well before the 2040 deadline. Maybe we’ll see another positive knock-on effect of MaaS going electric? Cleaner, greener, public transport on our highways boosting the confidence of private car owners to go electric, too.