What’s next in EVs?

4 min to readFuture

At the end of May LeasePlan with Robert Llewellyn from Fully Charged hosted a webinar ‘What’s next in EVs’, focused on the future of zero-emission mobility in Europe and beyond.

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At the end of May LeasePlan with Robert Llewellyn from Fully Charged hosted a webinar ‘What’s next in EVs’, focused on the future of zero-emission mobility in Europe and beyond. During our electrifying live event, our experts discussed why 2022 is set to be a great year for EVs, revealed which countries are leading – and lagging – in the EV revolution and, of course, answered many of your burning questions.

A new dawn for EVs

Our special guest was Robert Llewellyn of Fully Charged, the world’s number-one clean energy and EV show. He began by sharing his thoughts on the Kia EV6 – named Car of the Year 2022: “It’s a second-generation electric car, and a much more sophisticated machine than those we’ve seen before.”

He then presented the most exciting new EV models hitting the market this year, including:

The Lucid Air, “the next level in luxury EVs,”
The Polestar 3, “one of the most climate-responsible cars ever made.”
The Nio ET5, “China is making cars of stunning quality, like the Nio ET5, which offers innovations like battery swapping and an impressive 700 km range.”

Finally, we couldn’t let him go without asking about fleet electrification. “Is it the right time for company fleets to go electric? I can’t think of a reason why not,” said Robert. “The savings are phenomenal – not only for fuel but also for servicing costs. What’s more, the infrastructure is getting better and better, and we’re seeing exciting new innovations such as rapid charging, vehicle-to-grid charging and solar-panelled cars. The time is now!”

EV readiness deep-dive

Berno Kleinherenbrink, Chief Commercial Officer at LeasePlan, took us through the LeasePlan EV Readiness Index 2022 – the fifth edition of this annual report. In it, we weigh up several key factors in EV preparedness across 22 European countries.

“On the upside,” said Berno, “EV uptake has significantly increased in almost all markets and EVs are now more affordable than ever. However, for the fifth year in a row, charging infrastructure is the bottleneck holding back the EV transition in Europe. This shows that governments urgently need to invest in a robust and reliable public charging infrastructure that functions across Europe.”

Like last year, Norway came out on top in the overall EV Readiness ranking, followed by the Netherlands and the UK. But there were also notable highlights in the performance of several other European countries: Greece, for instance, showed the greatest improvement this time around …

A Greek success story

… as Costas Petroutsos, Managing Director of LeasePlan Greece, explained! According to him, there were three key factors contributing to this transformation:

An increase in EV maturity
Improvements in the country’s charging infrastructure
Incentives to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for EV drivers

He also talked about what’s next for Greece, looking ahead to intriguing initiatives such as new government incentives and even 100%-emission-free islands!

“All taxis will have to be emission-free as of January 1, 2026,” Costas added, “and by January 1, 2030, this will apply to all new cars. Considering its location and climate, Greece has enormous potential for making great use of renewable energy sources like solar power – after all, we have sunshine 365 days a year!”

Costas’s biggest lesson for other countries? “It’s crucial for us all to learn from others’ good practices. We have to be open to every opportunity if we want to drive real change in personal mobility.”

Quickfire Q&A

Then it was over to you! In the Q&A round, our speakers answered viewers’ queries about everything from the semi-conductor shortage and the EV affordability gap to the most common lease lengths and how LeasePlan is helping companies overcome charging infrastructure challenges. Also up for discussion? Supercharger networks, car sharing and why LeasePlan’s EV Readiness Index still has insufficient data to cover Asia and the Americas.

And the million-dollar question:

Viewer question: What’s the must-have EV right now? Experts’ answer: We’d go for the Kia EV6, but the Hyundai Ioniq5 SUV also has lots to recommend it. Honourable mentions to the Nio ET5 and the Ora Cat!

What is the biggest lesson from Greece to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles in other countries? Learn from others. Incentives and restrictions that have been tested out in other countries and proven to work should be picked up by countries looking to accelerate electric vehicle transition.Where we have infrastructure challenges, where is LeasePlan helping its customers navigate these problems? LeasePlan focuses on three areas: 1. Working with partners that are able to provide high quality infrastructure in the areas that are under our control e.g. private charging 2. Offer charge cards to customers that allow them to use almost all public charging infrastructure. 3. Lobby governments to prioritise investment in charging infrastructure When will Tesla expand their network to all other EV drivers around the world? It’s not known now. It appears some are open to other EV brands but it’s not widely advertised or clear yet.Where are Asia and the Americas in terms of their EV readiness? Statistically we have insufficient information to include these continents in our EV readiness index. [LeasePlan US launched a research](targetSelf:https://www.leaseplan.com/en-us/lpus-ev-readiness-index-2022/) into the preparedness of each US state on how EV ready are they. Over time, we hope to include more countries in our EV readiness index.Is it better to have longer or shorter lease lengths for EVs? In the UK we see a mix of drivers choosing longer lease lengths to take advantage of the cheaper TCO but we also see drivers selecting short term leases if they’re not sure what they want to drive longer term. We see the shorter term leases especially with hybrids.