As European countries are vigorously promoting energy conservation and emission reduction, electrification is creating a new development path for light commercial vehicles (LCVs). Like pure electric passenger vehicles, the sales volume of pure electric LCVs in the overall car market is still relatively small. However, many automobile manufacturers are expanding their pure electric LCV product lineup and developing new businesses based on these products, such as travel, express service, etc. The development prospect of pure electric LCV is very broad.

■ Light commercial vehicles are electrified or faster than passenger vehicles

European automotive analysts believe that in some aspects, light commercial vehicles are very suitable for the development of large-scale electrification. First, the charging pile network can be more conveniently arranged through customized operation routes; Second, the pure electric LCV is relatively quiet and environmentally friendly, which can improve the quality of life of urban residents; Third, the pure electric LCV can be free of charge in the areas where the internal combustion engine vehicles are not allowed to drive into or are used for a fee in the city center.

In general, the LCV industry has benefited from two trends, namely large-scale urbanization and the rise of the Internet economy. Thomas Steffedin, project leader of DPD Global autonomous driving logistics, said at this year's Hanover Commercial Vehicle Show that "the 'last mile' transport market is growing exponentially. We expect that the size of this segment in Europe will double by 2025." DPD is a development partner of Renault EZ-PRO electric LCV operation service, More than 4.8 million packages are delivered in Europe every day.

Xie Bode, senior analyst of Navigant, pointed out that large-scale marketization of electric vehicles may not be realized until 2030. At that time, the total cost of pure electric LCV will be basically the same as that of diesel or gasoline vehicles. However, he estimated that the purchase and use costs of small electric passenger vehicles such as Volkswagen eGolf should be equivalent to those of gasoline vehicles by 2025.

So far, the European customers who purchase pure electric LCVs are mainly large express companies or government agencies. For example, the French Postal Service is a major customer of Renault Kangoo van. Shepard said: "Government departments in many countries are increasingly emphasizing the need to shift from internal combustion engines to clean energy. At the call of government departments, companies such as DHL are also rapidly increasing the proportion of pure electric vehicles in the transport team.

Aman Atak, an analyst at IDTechEX Electric Vehicle Research Institute in the UK, said that the growth rate of the pure electric LCV market may be faster than that of pure electric passenger vehicles due to the relatively large procurement volume of transport companies and government agencies.

■ Shortcomings of pure electric light commercial vehicles still need to be supplemented

There are many private enterprises operating pure electric LCVs, and they are extremely sensitive to the cost of vehicle purchase. At present, the price of LCVs equipped with internal combustion engines and pure electric systems still has a large gap, which is difficult to change in the short term. In the whole life cycle, light commercial vehicles usually have the characteristics of short service life and long service mileage. However, the price of pure electric LCV is on the high side, and the investment can be recovered in a long cycle. In addition, the pure electric LCV is not suitable for long-distance transportation with heavy load because it is equipped with motor and battery.

Tatiana Heristova, an analyst with IHS Markit market research organization, said: "The smaller the LCV, the more likely it is to realize electrification quickly. The larger the pure electric LCV has little operational advantages, and it has high costs and low returns." He said that in the short term, transportation companies have limited acceptance of pure electric LCVs. The main reason is that the electric system has significantly increased the price of commercial vehicles, and the total cost is still the key consideration for professional buyers. Shepard believes that compared with passenger cars, light commercial vehicles have higher requirements on the battery pack configuration due to their larger weight and longer general travel, requiring batteries with higher energy density, which leads to higher costs.

The cost problem seems to be solved in the future. An automotive analyst believes that the development of pure electric LCV will be divided into two stages. The electric LCV sold at this stage is based on the traditional production platform. "The newly developed battery may continue to reduce its cost, which will still be high compared with the current diesel or gasoline vehicles. However, in the next stage, new pure electric LCVs may be put on the market after 2022. These products will be produced based on new platforms, such as Volkswagen Group's MEB platform, which uses a special battery architecture, which will reduce the cost of LCVs. "

Paul Detor, head of Nissan's European LCV department, said that improving the driving range of its e-NV200 pure electric LCV is the key to improving sales. Daytol said that with a 40 kilowatt battery, this model can drive 200 kilometers in the WLTP type approval cycle and 300 kilometers in urban road conditions. "According to our data analysis, such driving range can cover 40% of the daily mileage," he said. At present, Nissan has not only sold this model to municipal and public utilities departments, but also received orders from express companies and shuttle service companies.

■ Automatic driving is the addition of LCV electrification

At present, the main products in the European pure electric LCV market include Renault Kangoo, Nissan e-NV200 and StreetScooter Work created by the DHL subsidiary of the logistics company. Ford has begun producing larger trucks for the StreetScooter. Not long ago, Peugeot Citroen (PSA) also launched a new generation of Berlingo light commercial vehicles. "Startups like StreetScooter are likely to welcome more competitors," said Shepard. "When mainstream multinational automobile manufacturers are involved in this market, the pure electric LCV market will develop faster and the market scale will be larger."

Renault, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen demonstrated a series of light commercial vehicle concept vehicles at the Hanover Commercial Vehicle Show in September this year. Renault launched a new EZ-PRO concept car, which consists of an automatic driving head car and a mobile cargo warehouse. This is an autonomous electric vehicle, which also has the attributes of interconnection and sharing; The work can be completed independently or in a queue. Under the management of the same logistics operator, each EZ-PRO can complete various express services, such as automated parcel delivery, so that the recipient can choose when and where to receive the goods.

Gupta, head of Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance light commercial vehicles, said: "We expect that due to the increasingly serious problems of air pollution and traffic congestion, more and more countries and regions will consider issuing bans on fuel vehicles. In addition, the demand for e-commerce and 'last mile' commuting and delivery services continues to increase, and the future development of pure electric LCV will be rapid. ”He also pointed out that automatic driving will also promote the development of pure electric LCV. Many car enterprises have begun to launch pure electric buses to test the water travel business, such as Volkswagen; Some automobile manufacturers, such as Ford, are testing automated delivery and delivery services. "Both the automobile and service elements of this kind of business are indispensable. We have automobile expertise, but service is not our core competitiveness. We need to find partners that can bring advantages in service, and then we will explore together," Gupta said.

Mercedes Benz recently launched the Urbanetic concept car, which is a modular autonomous electric vehicle that can be used to transport goods or people. German parts supplier ZF also showed a semi-automatic electric vehicle. Wolfe Shede, CEO of ZF, said: "In the next 10 years, we will achieve about 30% electrification in the field of commercial vehicles, and most of our business will come from cities." In addition, ZF is also working with a large logistics company to develop autonomous trucks.

In addition to the travel field, Volkswagen has also formulated a corresponding product plan for the future logistics service market, namely I D. BUZZ pure electric concept car. The design of the car is inspired by the first generation of Volkswagen T series T1 minibus, which is very retro. This is a fully automated multi-function vehicle with flexible spatial layout. It is reported that I D. BUZZ concept car will be mass produced in 2022.