Mitsubishi’s i Miev city car has been a success in Japan but has proved slightly less popular in the UK - perhaps not helped by Mitsubishi’s decision to only import 300 of the blighters in 2007, the car’s UK launch year.

If you aren’t familiar with the i Miev (and I wasn’t), it’s a small thing that looks a bit like a 4-door Smart car. The current model has a 600cc turbo-charged petrol engine - just like a Smart car (sorry, I couldn’t find a copyright-free photo).

What makes it interesting to us van users are two things:

1. Mitsubishi are soon to launch a small van version
2. Mitsubishi are soon to launch an all-electric version, designed for low-mileage urban use

Sounds tasty, says you. Where can I get one?

Well, first of all, soon means 2010 for the electric launch and 2011 for the UK van import.

Then there’s the availability (assuming they take off). Mitsubishi UK are expecting to sell 2,000-3,000 of the all-electric model in the UK, according to Car Magazine, but production volumes could be limited initially if battery production can’t keep up.

If you’re still attracted - and for a modern, city-based business in need of a small van they will make sense - then zero-emission heaven can be yours for around £12,000 - about £3,000 more than the current petrol model.

As I mentioned last week, the UK government is putting serious money on the table to encourage the development of low-emission commercial vehicles, especially vans. The arrival of the i Miev van could be perfectly-timed for an upswing in demand.

We live in interesting times…

The government has announced a £20m program to develop and provide electric and low-carbon vans to public sector organisations such as the Royal Mail and the Metropolitan police. Ten companies have been shortlisted to develop a suitable mass-market low-carbon van for the program.

This money is part of a £100m program to develop the infrastructure and technology needed to make widespread use of electric and hybrid vehicles a reality.

Transport secretary Geoff Hoon told the Guardian that the program was a response to the knowledge that “Van emissions are rising more than any other mode of road transport”. The government are hoping that this program will help “kick-start the market [for low-carbon vans]” as there is not currently a suitable model available.

With range and recharging facilities still an issue for all-electric vehicles, my reading of this initiative is that the main goal is self-sufficient, low-emission hybrid vehicles - perhaps along the same lines as the Chevrolet Volt, which has an all-electric powertrain but carries a small petrol engine on board to charge its batteries when needed.

To learn more, see this article in the Guardian and this article on the Fleet News website.

The benefits of all-electric vehicles for urban distribution work are widely acknowledged - zero emissions, low tax, no congestion charge and no requirement (if over 3.5 tonnes) for a tachograph.

There is also a growing body of evidence that whole-life costs for electric vehicles can be lower than those for diesel-engined vehicles used on low mileage work, and that is certainly what office supply company Lyreco seem to be expecting from the Modec electic van they have been trialling.

Although electric vehicles continue to be restricted by their limited ranges - up to 100 miles in the case of the Modec - a surprising number of delivery vehicles don’t do more than 50-100 miles a day. These are typically used in the urban and stop-start environments where the benefits of electric power are greatest. Lyreco, for example, say that 30% of their vehicles do fewer than 60 miles a day and 65% do fewer than 100 miles a day.

The Modec’s maximum speed of 50mph is more than adequate for London deliveries, and its 2 tonne payload makes it a suitable replacement for the Mercedes Sprinter 511 vans Lyreco normally uses. Added bonuses are zero road tax, zero congestion charge and an 8-hour charge cycle - which can easily be fitted in overnight. I wonder if they can benefit from cheap electricity rates during off-peak hours?

Hybrids vs. All-Electric Vehicles

Hybrid’s seem to be the flavour of the month at present and I do think they have a role to play in the future. Pure electric vehicles, however, can potentially solve a greater number of problems and also offer the twin benefits of much greater simplicity and zero emissions at point of use. Although power stations undoubtedly have their own pollution problems, they aren’t in city centres and are relatively few in number - hopefully making it easier for their emissions to be managed and contained as emission reduction technology develops.

Improvements in battery technology and cost seem to be the key to the success of electric vehicles. If range issues can be addressed and battery costs reduced, a major obstacle should be removed. Perhaps a more likely near-future scenario is that of the Chevrolet Volt - an all-electric car with a small on-board petrol engine to charge the batteries (not power the vehicle) whenever needed.

The UK government’s renewable fuels watchdog, the Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA) has published its first monthly report into UK biofuel usage.

The main conclusions of the report seem to be:

• Usage is up to 2.14% - slightly below the government’s 2.5% RTFO target
• Only 19% of fuel met ‘environmental standards’ - below the target of 30%
• 50% of biofuel came from an unknown country
• 58% of biofuel was produced on land whose previous use was unknown

Given the number of unknowns, it seems plausible that much of the biofuel we are merrily consuming is coming from the kind of rain forest-destroying, food price inflation-related sources that have got environmentalists hot under the collar.

The RFA hopes that data provision will be improved in the future and that they will soon work out how to compensate for the knock-on effects of biofuel production. These can of course include increased carbon emissions, so this could have a severe effect on the impressive 42% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions claimed in this first monthly report…

You can read the full report here.

A new report from the UK’s Renewable Fuels Agency, an independent body, has recommended that the adoption of biofuels be “significantly slowed” until measures are put in place to alleviate the unwanted side effects of biofuel production:

• Loss of agricultural land used for food production
• Possible increases in greenhouse gases
• Rising food commodity prices - particularly oil seeds in the UK (corn in USA, I believe)

The report’s most striking conclusion - and one that chimes with many environmental and poverty organisations’ findings - is that:

…there is a future for a sustainable biofuels industry but that feedstock production must avoid agricultural land that would otherwise be used for food production.

The report also concludes that there “sufficient land for food, feed and biofuels” but that biofuel production must target “idle and marginal land” and the use of “wastes and residue”. It notes that current [UK] policies are likely to lead to an increase in carbon emissions:

“…the balance of evidence shows a significant risk that current policies will lead to net greenhouse gas emissions”

Biofuels Contribute to Rising Food Prices

Just like the recent World Bank report, the RFA believes that biofuels are contributing to rising food prices but concludes that the net effects of biofuel production on food prices might stabilise and moderate over time.

Needless to say, the report concludes that those worst affected by the consequences of increased biofuel production are the poorest members of society - both in the UK and in countries of biofuel production.

A Successful Biofuel Industry Is Possible - But Must Be Regulated

The reports ultimate conclusion is that a sustainable, environmentally beneficial and responsible biofuel industry is possible - but that much greater regulation is required for this to be achieved.

It suggests that the current Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) policy in the UK should be amended so that biofuel content in road transport fuel is increased by no more than 0.5% per year from its current 2.5% level. This would leave it at a maximum of 5% by 2013/14 - against the current target of 5% by 2010.

The report also puts forward a suggested framework of regulation that would help shape the industry into an effective and sustainable force for emission reduction and ends by suggesting that short-term financial assistance should be provided to those worst affected by rising food prices, since these are at least partially the result of western governments’ ill-considered biofuel policies.

Note: It’s worth emphasising that the kind of biofuels causing the problems alluded to above are those produced from large-scale farming of oil seed (in the UK) and corn (for example) in the USA. Biofuel production from waste oil and other by-products is generally considered to make a positive contribution to greenhouse gas emission reduction and most independent experts agree that it should be fostered and encouraged.

Back in April, I wrote about a new partnership that was promising to deliver workable, cost-effective hydrogen filling stations in the not-too-distant future. ITM Power’s goal is to develop a commercially-viable hydrogen filling station that actually generates its own hydrogen from water and electricity - not relying on deliveries by tanker lorries.

It seems that progress has already been made towards that goal. ITM Power are currently running a Ford Focus as a hydrogen demonstration vehicle for their filling station design. At present it only has a range (using one charge of hydrogen fuel) of 25 miles, but this can be increased to 100 miles by storing the hydrogen under greater pressure. The vehicle is bi-fuel and can be switched back to petrol whenever necessary.

Next month will see Roush Technologies, the company handling the vehicle engineering side of this project, start using a hydrogen-fuelled Ford Transit to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. The Transit, which features a supercharged 2.3 litre [petrol] engine, will be used to promote the benefits of hydrogen fuel to businesses and other van operators.

The system will be targeted at vans on short delivery runs in urban areas where returning to base to refuel is not an issue and where reduced emissions could well result in tax and operating cost reductions for the van operators.

ITM Power have managed to reduce the cost of the hydrogen fuelling stations by replacing the platinum membrane normally required with a specially-developed polymer. This has a cost of just 1% of the traditional design and is helping bring commercially-viable hydrogen fuel stations closer to reality.

ITM expect to go into volume production of hydrogen filling stations in the next couple of years and expect production units to cost a few thousand pounds. That seems cheap to me - although they will use a sizable amount of electricity, it is easy to imagine attractive cost savings in comparison to diesel.

For more details, see these stories in Logistics Manager and Fleet News.

The rush to use food crops to make biofuels has caused 75% of the rise in food prices seen between 2002 and Febuary 2008, according to a new, unpublished World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

In comparison, the report found that increased energy and fertiliser costs have only been responsible for 15% of food price increases across the same period.

This is a subject I have been concerned about for some time - it’s good to see authoritative, objective support for this coming from such a respected source.

Hopefully both EU and US politicians might start to think a little more carefully about their biofuel policies now - with about half of EU-produced vegetable oil and a third of US corn being used to make biofuels, their incentives have unwittingly distorted global food markets.

An untangling of this mess is urgently needed.

You can read the full report on the Guardian’s website.

A leading charity has joined the calls by top scientists for compulsory EU biofuel targets to be reconsidered.

Barbara Stocking, CEO of Oxfam GB said that “Recent estimates suggest that increased demand for biofuels accounts for 30% of recent food price rises, while mounting scientific evidence shows biofuels are having an overall negative impact on climate change.”

The UK government has already promised to review their target of making 5% of transport fuels biofuel within two years. However, the EU has continued discussing even more ambitious targets - despite the widespread evidence that the carbon footprint of biofuels can be larger than that of fossil fuels.

Stocking said that “the urgent review of compulsory biofuels targets in rich countries to stop their inflationary impact” was “a priority”.

I’ve been writing articles on the unwanted side effects of increased biofuel use for some months now and over that time the case has only got stronger. Environmentalists, poverty campaigners and scientists all agree that we need to take a step back and look at the bigger impact of biofuels.

So what does the EU do? Plough onwards with plans to make increased use of biofuels compulsory…

This week saw TNT announce an order for 100 Smith Electric Vehicles Newton delivery trucks. The vehicles will be put  into use on urban routes and the vehicles will have a gross weight of 7.5 tonnes - territory currently occupied by diesel-powered vehicles.

The electric vehicles are part of TNT’s ‘Planet Me’ green initiative and offer a number of environmental and economic benefits - including zero road tax and  London Congestion Charge exemption. TNT believes that when all 100 are in operation, they will reduce the company’s CO2 emissions by 1,300 tonnes annually.

The Newtons should also prove cheaper to fuel than their diesel equivalents - and given that TNT’s fleet of 1,950 commercial vehicles and 930 cars slurped a massive £24.83m worth of diesel last year, I guess every little helps!

The vehicles are the first ever 7.5t class lorries that can offer comparable performance to diesel equivalents an maintain zero emissions. The trucks cost just 7p/mile in electricity costs and have a range of 70 miles and a maximum speed of 50mph - ideal for urban delivery work.

According to Tom Bell, Managing Director of TNT Express Services UK & Ireland, the economic argument is as compelling as the environmental case: “On average it costs just £40-a-week to power a zero emission vehicle as opposed to around £200 spent on diesel fuel. The electric vehicles are also exempt from the London congestion charge - approximately £1,750 a year - and do not incur road tax in the UK.”

TNT’s Smith Electric Vehicles will be going into service in locations around the UK - including London, Basildon, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, Enfield, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Luton, Northampton, Oxford, Paisley, Preston and Wolverhampton.

I thought I’d share a couple of altnerative fuel stories with you that caught my eye today.

Biofuels Here To Stay - EU

It looks like the EU may not be going to back down on the planned 20% biofuel target as readily as has recently been suggested, according to a new story in the news this week.

In a recent speech, EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel provided staunch support for the biofuel movement, saying that just 15% of the EU’s agricultural land would provide enough rapeseed to meet the biofuel target. Boel also noted that 58% of this rapeseed would be converted into animal feed - presumably after the oil had been extracted.

I don’t know about you, but 15% of EU agricultural land actually seems rather a lot to me - especially with staple food prices going up and no notable expansion in farming levels.

How many farmers would have to stop growing wheat and other food crops to produce this much rapeseed?

(via Fleet News)

Hydrogen Fuel - To Long In The Pipeline?

A new report called published in the USA suggests that while hydrogen’s low emission credentials may be sound, it will take far too long for the technology to mature and enter volume usage.

“The Hype About Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race To Save the Climate” suggests that mainstream hydrogen fuelled vehicles are simply too far in the future to provide the urgently-needed reduction in carbon emissions.

The report, by Joseph Romm of the Centre for Energy and Climate Solutions, suggests that lower-emission petrol engines and hybrid/electric solutions provide more realistic emission-reducing prospects in the near future.

This article in Wired highlights how the current heavy investment in hydrogen needs to be mirrored by investment in electric and hybrid-based solutions if the necessary cuts in emissions - put at an 80% reduction by 2050 - are to be met.

My personal view, echoed by many of the commenters on the Wired article, is that any such change always takes longer than expected to become mainstream. The Earth will survive in the meantime, but the critical short-term issue is to find ways of reducing consumption and emissions using existing internal combustion technology. Hybrids do seem to offer one potential solution - but they are still relatively immature and quite expensive.

(via Wired)