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Looking ahead to 2025 – predictions from Paul Hollick, Lightfoot’s Managing Director

With the new year right around the corner, we asked Lightfoot’s Managing Director, Paul Hollick, for his thoughts on what the fleet industry can expect in 2025:

“Decarbonisation will obviously remain a major focus for fleets in 2025 and beyond – not just around transitioning to electric vehicles, but in making existing ICE vehicles greener.

“For those businesses that need to tow, have an ultra-rural fleet, or are unable to easily charge vehicles overnight, the switch to EVs presents a whole host of challenges, so the strategy needs to involve getting more out of petrol and diesel vehicles – more miles, fewer emissions – until a suitable EV solution comes along.

Paul Hollick, Managing Director

“For fleets in this position, the answer lies in changing driver behaviour and using in-cab coaching solutions, such as Lightfoot, to reward drivers for reaching key milestones in both efficiency and safety.

“I do think fleets with drivers clocking up more than 20,000 miles a year can make electric vehicles work, although there is still a lot of range anxiety at present. The true challenges to EV adoption are fleet location, as rural areas don’t have the infrastructure; operational downtime as a result of charging; and daily range…but annual mileage should not be a problem. Especially for those fleets using a solution like Lightfoot’s driver coaching tech, where small changes to driving style help to massively boost range in both EVs and PHEVs.

“As far as EV infrastructure is concerned, this still requires huge improvements across the country. Particularly where you have drivers with no access to off-road charging – anyone forced to use public charging faces significantly higher costs. I’m hopeful that the current consultation over the ZEV mandate will have a positive outcome, and improve things for fleets in terms of charging, regulation, availability, and affordability.”