One of Malta’s leading drinks manufacturers is considering a switch to all-electric delivery vehicles after it found that using an electric van saved them nearly 70 per cent on the cost of energy compared to diesel.

Simonds Farsons Cisk partnered with the Foundation for Transport and the Malta Road Safety Council for a pilot project to switch one of their diesel delivery vans to a new electric Peugeot supplied by Michael Attard Limited.

They ran the project and collected data from May through August, which is their busiest time of the year, and found that charging a van cost them 67 per cent less than filling a van with diesel.

Furthermore, when delivery drivers were trained on how to drive the van more efficiently, the charge lasted even longer. Drivers with no training were returning to the factory after a day of deliveries with around 35 per cent left of charge while the trained drivers were returning with as much as 60 per cent.

“We had already successfully introduced a number of electric passenger cars but electric vans that are loaded with goods for delivery use energy somewhat differently because their range varies according to different payloads,” Farsons’ head of logistics Chris Borg Cardona told Times of Malta.

“Our biggest fear was how far the battery would go. Because when one of our diesel vans runs out of fuel, the driver simply refills it in five minutes at the nearest pumping station and carries on with their work. But with the electric van, if they run of out of charge, that’s it. It will take hours to recharge. But surprisingly, the battery never died.”

The giant food and beverage conglomerate has since been crunching more numbers to see whether to move towards an all-electric delivery fleet, but Borg Cardona admitted it is not all a bed of roses.

Firstly, Farsons did not buy the van – it was lent to them for the pilot project, so the data does not factor in the cost of ownership.

“And it’s not just the initial cost of buying it, but also how much it will cost to service it and whether we will be able to re-sell it in the future,” he said.

“We still don’t know a lot about the market of second-hand delivery electric vehicles. A second-hand internal combustion engine could be almost as good as new, but if the EV’s battery life dwindles drastically after a few years, not many people would be willing to buy it from us.”

He also said the company usually handles massive quantities of deliveries and operates mostly with larger trucks and trailers, the electric versions of which are in their primitive stages of development and are still not easily accessible on the local market.

Electric vans cheaper to service

On the other hand, electric vans have fewer expensive components, making them cheaper to service. They have longer and better guarantees and are increasingly incentivised by the government. All of that adds to a significant reduction in the cost of operation, attractive enough for the company to consider taking the next step.

“But it’s not just electric vehicles. We are also considering other forms of zero-emission vehicles, such as hydrogen ones, when they become available,” he said.

The director general of the Foundation for Transport, Jeannette Axisa, said the project has already piqued the interest of several other businesses, which are interested in investing in similar technology but need to be encouraged to take the plunge.

“For us, the project was not only about testing cost-effectiveness. It was also a way to discover what stumbling blocks businesses still find in our system. And we found quite a few,” she said.

“Our mission now is to work towards eliminating the hurdles to drive the change in a continuously changing market.”

The foundation was two years old last month, co-founded by the Malta Chamber of SMEs, the Malta Employers’ Association, Malta Enterprise, MCAST and Transport Malta to assist industry players in adapting to innovation and adopting clean technologies.

The chair of the Malta Road Safety Council, Pierre Vella, said that electromobility was not the entire solution either, but it could go a long way in tackling some of the toughest challenges.

“We learnt a lot from the Farsons pilot project, and we can now help other companies shift to electric vehicles because we have learnt from our own mistakes what works best and when,” he said.