The EV Café

Government wants majority of short trips to be walked or cycled by 2035

By The EV Café Team

// 19 Jun 2026

By The EV Café Team

// 19 Jun 2026

Government wants majority of short trips to be walked or cycled by 2035Government wants majority of short trips to be walked or cycled by 2035

£4.5bn into 5,000 new active‑travel routes and 10,000 safer crossings

Latest podcast

Coming 24 Jun

#172 - Nick Hay | Holman UK#172 - Nick Hay | Holman UK

Scheduled for 24 Jun 2026

Days before stepping in as Managing Director of Holman UK, Nick Hay sits down with Paul and Sara for a conversation that ranges far wider than fleet leasing. It's a candid look at what three decades in cold chain logistics teaches you about cutting environmental impact without losing sight of commercial reality — and what it costs the person doing the leading. Nick traces a career built on incremental gains: fitting telematics across an entire 100-unit fleet back in 2005, dragging a 400-truck operation's fuel efficiency from 8.1 to over 10 MPG when people thought he was mad to try, and running Euro 5 trial vehicles from every major manufacturer side by side rather than waiting to see what everyone else did. The throughline is a willingness to test, measure, and stop what isn't working — and to do it in partnership rather than at a supplier's expense, from one of the UK's first 100% lithium-ion materials-handling fleets to joint ventures packing 40 million cases of produce a year. We get into why private ownership changes what's possible in the energy transition, how Holman's shared-risk model differs from a standard lease, and why "horses for courses" matters more than ever when logistics spans a tradesperson's van and a long-haul HGV. Nick is clear-eyed on the obstacles too: grid access, the risk of being an early adopter, reactive government policy, and the speed at which Chinese manufacturers are now moving. Then the conversation turns. Nick talks openly about growing up the self-described black sheep of an academic family, an athletics career that taught him resilience precisely because he didn't make it, and a lifelong wrestle with depression that he learned to mask at work — sometimes, he admits, at a cost to the people closest to him. It's an unusually honest exchange about what compassionate leadership actually demands: the willingness to say you don't know, to apologise when you got it wrong, and to keep believing you can be better tomorrow. His one wish? Government legislation that's properly thought through, with a long-term view instead of constant chopping and changing — the certainty the whole industry is asking for. **Guest:** Nick Hay, Managing Director, Holman UK **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hay-4b1a52137/ **Company:** https://www.holman.com/uk/

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The Installer Show 2026The Installer Show 2026

By The EV Café Team

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Environment found to be main reason for fleet EV adoptionEnvironment found to be main reason for fleet EV adoption

Stellantis, Wayve and Uber to develop robotaxis as UK consults on tech safety

By The EV Café Team

// 19 Jun 2026

By The EV Café Team

// 19 Jun 2026

Stellantis, Wayve and Uber to develop robotaxis as UK consults on tech safetyStellantis, Wayve and Uber to develop robotaxis as UK consults on tech safety

More News

UK electric car sales target set to be weakened

By The EV Café Team

// 19 Jun 2026

UK electric car sales target set to be weakenedUK electric car sales target set to be weakened

The government is consulting on reducing the 2030 ZEV mandate

The EV Cafe seeks opinions, specifically YOURS!

By John Curtis

// 19 Jun 2026

The EV Cafe seeks opinions, specifically YOURS!The EV Cafe seeks opinions, specifically YOURS!

Is the UK workforce truly ready for electric vehicles? Help us to gauge just how prepared we are!

Charger Uptime Rules: Reliable…According to Who?

By The EV Café Team

// 15 May 2026

Charger Uptime Rules: Reliable…According to Who?Charger Uptime Rules: Reliable…According to Who?

Concerns are growing over how the UK monitors compliance

Europe’s EV Transition Faces Political Pressure

By The EV Café Team

// 15 May 2026

Europe’s EV Transition Faces Political PressureEurope’s EV Transition Faces Political Pressure

Europe’s push toward electrification is increasingly facing resistance

Podcast Episodes

#171 - Calum James | Farizon#171 - Calum James | Farizon

Published 17 Jun 2026

Calum James, General Manager of Farizon UK, joins Paul and Sara to talk about what it actually takes to land a brand new electric van marque in one of the world's most demanding fleet markets. Calum walks through Farizon's lineage inside the Geely group - the same family tree as Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, LEVC and the Mercedes-Benz Smart joint venture - and the role of Jameel Motors, the 80-year-old distributor putting the brand on UK roads. He explains why the SV (Super Van) and the newly launched V7e are built ground-up as EVs rather than adapted from combustion platforms, and why details like a standard ventilated seat, three-pin sockets in the load bay and a payload monitoring system are aimed squarely at fleet managers worried about driver welfare, compliance and downtime. The conversation digs into: - Farizon's "fast follower” playbook and why the SV picked up MCFT's fleet after a TCO comparison that delivered £1,500–£2,000 per van per year in savings - The AA partnership that puts mobile service, maintenance and repair on a 72-hour SLA - built around owner-operators who can't afford a day off the road - What Calum and Paul Kirby saw at the Beijing Motor Show: driverless Farizon vans on public roads, robotic 500kW chargers, and the gap between legacy OEMs that dream the future and Chinese manufacturers shipping it - The V7e's sub-£200-mile range, 1.3-tonne payload and 18-minute 80% rapid charge — and why charging speed has overtaken range anxiety as the fleet conversation - ZEV mandate pressure (10% market share against a 24% target), the shifting TCO maths as Middle East fuel volatility bites, and why 95% of electric van buyers are still fleets - Calum's path from part-time chef and Swindon banking grad to 11 years at Mercedes-Benz vans, and the leaders who shaped how he runs the team now - Regenerative leadership, the anonymous fortnightly mood meter Farizon publishes uncensored to its leadership team, and why Calum walks his dog around the same lake twice a day to stay grounded **LinkedIn:** <https://www.linkedin.com/in/calum-j-b4328059/> **Website:** https://farizonauto.co.uk

#170 - Stephen Clegg | Topspeed#170 - Stephen Clegg | Topspeed

Published 10 Jun 2026

Stephen Clegg founded Topspeed Couriers in 1985 and has spent the last four years (and roughly £4.2 million) ripping diesel out of a logistics business that moves dangerous goods, radioactive material, and time-critical government samples around the UK. He sits down with Paul and John — joined briefly by Webfleet's Richard Parker before technology has other ideas — to talk about what actually happens when you stop talking about sustainability and start spending money on it. The conversation gets into the specifics most operators avoid: why carbon emissions go *up* before they come down, why a Carbon Reduction Plan is essentially accountancy with different units, and why the much-repeated line "you'll save money by going green" is closer to "we're going to the moon in ten years" than a business case. Also covered: - Winning a King's Award for Sustainability — and the team back at base who actually did the work - Why maintenance costs dropped to roughly a quarter once the diesel vans left the workshop - The shift to overnight, event-critical work and what that does to fleet utilisation - Driving 15mph slower, the bonus scheme that makes it stick, and a 75% reduction in claims after rolling out AI-based driver and forward-facing cameras - Public charging discounts that kick in when you're plugging in three or four times a day - The smash advert theory of refined fuels (you'll need to hear it) - One missing Volvo EX90, one nine-year-old Land Rover Discovery pressed back into service, and a verdict on 15-year-old in-cab tech A useful listen for anyone running a van fleet who's been told the transition is too hard, too expensive, or too early — and for anyone who's been told it'll be easy. **LinkedIn:** <https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-clegg-b0179242/> **Website:** <https://www.topspeedcouriers.co.uk>

#169 - Dev Chana | E.ON Drive Infrastructure#169 - Dev Chana | E.ON Drive Infrastructure

Published 03 Jun 2026

Dev Chana started his career as an oil broker in Kensington. Three decades later he's running E.ON Drive Infrastructure in the UK, and his ambition for public charging is unexpectedly modest: he wants it to be boring. Reliable, standardised, unremarkable. The kind of refuel you don't post about because there's nothing to post. Paul and Sara catch up with Dev after first meeting his team in a rain-lashed Welsh car park during the EV Rally, where the curb-free bays, weighted cables and a small dog set the tone for what EDRI is quietly building. What's on the table: - How a 10-person team has put 300+ bays in the ground in three years, when the industry average to install a *single* charger is 18 months - The 39p–44p/kWh opening price, why there's no app or membership, and what "no faff, no fuss" actually costs to deliver - Accessibility decisions baked in from day one: no bump stops, five-metre cables, CCTV on every HPC site, drainage that doesn't dump a puddle at the driver's feet - Why EDRI tiers its food and beverage partners instead of building its own forecourts — and why two early petrol-station sites won't be repeated - Vans now make up 25% of utilisation. Nobody invited them. What that's telling EDRI about the next phase of the network - The Shanghai motor show, BYD's jumping supercar, and what the XPeng/VW partnership signals for European OEMs - Dev's car-club mates who told him EVs would never take off — and have now switched their dailies - The mentors who shaped him: Ann Buckingham, who pulled him into the sector, and his father's moral compass - Where consolidation in the CPO market needs to land for the consumer experience to finally standardise Dev is a self-confessed petrolhead with a V8 from the early '90s and a 1981 classic with fewer than 15 survivors. He's also the leader most likely to tell you the industry isn't done learning — and to ask what *you'd* change. **LinkedIn:** <https://www.linkedin.com/in/dev-chana-1228b94/> **Website:** <https://www.edri.com/>

#168 - Elliot Richards | Everything Electric APAC#168 - Elliot Richards | Everything Electric APAC

Published 27 May 2026

Paul and John take listeners deep into the heart of China’s electric vehicle revolution with Elliot Richards, long-time Shanghai resident and driving force behind of Everything Electric APAC. Fresh from Auto China, the conversation covers: - How Elliot went from a three‑month visit to China to 20 years immersed in its EV industry. - The rapid transformation of cities like Shenzhen to all‑electric taxis and buses in under two months. - The rise of BYD, Geely, and other manufacturers, and how vertical integration is giving Chinese brands a massive global advantage. - Game‑changing innovations in batteries, from sodium‑ion grid storage to five‑minute flash charging and upcoming solid‑state technology. - Autonomous driving, LiDAR‑equipped vehicles, robo‑taxis, and cargo bots that already operate in Chinese cities. - The commercial vehicle sector, battery swapping, and why Europe’s legacy manufacturers are now partnering—or being outpaced—by Chinese firms. ## Elliot Richards (LinkedIn) <https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-richards/> ## Everything Electric APAC <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVtrDZAqOFM8_wIZHHzsqvg>

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