Buy an electric van and save 25% on running costs

That is the recent claim of an environmental group. It may well be true, but one has to take into account the higher capital cost of a new electric van. There is also the difficulty of the dearth of public charging stations as Peter Black has highlighted many times, most recently here and here.

A Radio 4 programme aimed at debunking excessive claims by advertisers looked at the cost of replacing a conventional car mid-life with its electric equivalent (a Vauxhall Corsa was the chosen example) as against waiting until the vehicle was no longer viable. They found that the latter course cost less, but still found that the pay-back time was 11 years. 

That pay-back time may be less in the case of a commercial vehicle which does many more miles than the average family car, but we are still expecting a degree of altruism on the part of operators in asking them to make the switch. Government needs to do more to ensure that there is a dense network of charging stations and in keeping the cost of electricity supply down. Only then will pioneering companies like Stevens of Port Talbot take off, as they deserve to do.