Vehicle planned for new electric car club awarded ‘Most Energy Efficient Light Commercial Vehicle’ in RAC Future Car Challenge
Elektromotive, the UK’s leading provider of electric vehicle (EV) recharging posts, has been chosen to meet the recharging infrastructure requirements for Brighton’s first electric car club.
The company will supply a Rapid Charge Elektrobay which can charge the battery of a compatible EV to 80 per cent of its capacity in just 20 minutes, compared to around seven hours if using a conventional domestic power supply.
The first vehicle planned to join the new club fleet will be a fully-electric Mercedes Vito Van, which will be made available to traders operating in Brighton’s new London Road Open Market. The Open Market is a green urban regeneration initiative led by The Hyde Group, the developer behind the project and a leading provider of affordable housing.
The club is being created in partnership with City Car Club, Brighton’s largest car club operator. Through membership of the City Car Club, traders will be able to use the electric Vito van for local collections and deliveries, helping make the new market environmentally sustainable long into the future.
To highlight the excellent green credentials of the new fully-electric Mercedes Vito Van, Elektromotive and Hyde entered the RAC Future Car Challenge at the weekend and secured the award for ‘Most Energy Efficient Light Commercial Vehicle’. Brighton & Hove Councillor, Alex Phillips, took part in the challenge from Brighton’s Madeira Drive to the finish line on Pall Mall in London. With a quick charge on route, the Mercedes Vito Van drove the 60-mile journey with 28 percent of its charge remaining, ably demonstrating its suitability as a low-emissions, low-cost transport solution for the Open Market traders.
The Open Market – which has an Eco Rating of BREEAM Excellent, is expected to be completed in summer 2013, and uses environmentally responsible Green Guide rated materials together with solar power, rainwater harvesting and exhaust-air heat pumps to help minimise its impact on the environment. The project will feature a new covered market area, creative industries workspace and a new residential street providing affordable homes for local people, together with its very own Rapid Charge Elektrobay.
Hyde and Elektromotive are also working together to electrify ’One Hove Park’, another proposed new housing development in Brighton & Hove. It is proposed that the 71 sustainable new homes will each be equipped with an Elektrobay Home Charger unit, as well as other features including triple-glazing, solar power, community allotments for food growing and a super-insulated building envelope to help reduce resident fuel bills.
Councillor Alex Phillips, who was part of team Hyde/Elektromotive, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the event. It was a positive way of promoting the use of electric vehicles whilst having some fun with the rest of the Hyde/Elektromotive team. Winning the award for the least energy used in the lightweight commercial vehicle category was really the icing on the cake.”
Tom Shaw, Hyde’s Project Manager responsible for the Open Market project said: “Hyde is pleased to be working with local partners including Brighton & Hove City Council, Elektromotive and City Car Club on this exciting initiative to set up Brighton & Hove’s first electric vehicle car club. Hyde residents, local people, businesses and the market traders will all benefit from Hyde’s investment in electric vehicle infrastructure at the Open Market – with new residents also gaining free membership & access to City Car Club’s extensive network of vehicles in the City”
“New commercial and residential projects such as Hyde’s Brighton’s Open Market and One Hove Park developments show how electric vehicles can work both for consumers and commercial owners,” commented Calvey Taylor-Haw, Managing Director of Elektromotive. “Sustainable developments such as these will be accompanied hand-in-hand by a rise in sustainable transport, and it’s innovative, pioneering schemes like this that show how the EV charging infrastructure could develop organically.”
