Half of small businesses expect electric fleets within a decade

In the UK, almost one in four agree while around 19% said they don’t expect their fleets to ever become fully electric

Half of small businesses believe their fleets could be fully electric within the next decade.

That’s according to a new survey of more than 3,200 small businesses across the UK, US, China, France, Mexico, Australia and Japan, commissioned by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, which also found around 66% of them predict electric fleets within the next 20 years.

Around 93% of business owners and decision-makers responsible for 50 or more vehicles consider environmental sustainability of high importance, with the higher the turnover of the company and the bigger the fleet, the more important sustainability is to them.

Out of 500 small business leaders surveyed in the UK, almost one in four believe their fleets will be fully electric within 10 years.

In contrast, around 19% said they don’t expect their fleets to ever become fully electric, compared to 1% in China and 39% in the US.

Around 55% of small businesses in the countries surveyed see their fleets becoming fully autonomous within the next two decades, with 38% saying this is likely to happen in 10 years.

In the UK, only 14% of small business leaders see fleets becoming driverless in the next decade, however, 35% believe this will never actually happen.

That’s in contrast to 43% of respondents in China who believe fleets will be autonomous within 10 years.

Globally, more than a third said business efficiencies are the main reason for investing in new technologies within their fleet, 21% said cost saving drives their decisions and 14% highlighted their desire to be more sustainable.

Ashwani Gupta, Senior Vice President of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) business said: “These results show that the electrification of fleets is increasingly on the minds of our customers – not just for the financial efficiencies that EVs can deliver but because environmental sustainability is clearly crucial to the future of their businesses. I’m impressed at how optimistic these fleet managers are about the speed in which their vehicles will be fully electrified.”

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