High Powered Wireless Charging

Case Study: The John Lewis Partnership – High Powered Wireless Charging

The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) has an ambitious strategy to decarbonise fleet operations by 2030, and is working with Flexible Power Systems (FPS) on a number of trials. FPS use cutting edge data science and simulation to map the cost, emissions and power aspects of the transition and working together the companies delivered a UK fleet first wireless charging trial. FPS developed a cloud-based EV (electric vehicle) and smart-charging management platform to improve EV productivity as part of the trial and JLP drivers report a quieter smoother experience, less fatigue and improved wellbeing.

WIRELESS CHARGING

In November 2021, Waitrose made a significant investment in electric vehicles as part of its programme to replace diesel vehicles.

Funded by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) delivered in partnership with Innovate UK, FPS & JLP delivered a UK first supermarket trial of high-powered wireless charging on light commercial vehicles. The St Katharine Docks branch in central London became the first supermarket in the UK to trial Vauxhall Vivaro-e electric delivery vehicles featuring cutting-edge wireless-charging technology.

Wireless charging offers fleet users benefits in terms of eliminating trailing cables which can be trip hazards and faster initiation of charging to improve vehicle availability.

As part of the trial a new vehicle and charger management platform was developed. Vehicle and charger communications were combined with the transport planning system, building metering system, weather and pricing data, to provide a real time integrated picture of EV performance that can be used for strategic planning, saving both carbon and costs.

The first 27 stores processed identified savings of £10.3m vs. an unoptimised baseline and potential for savings of 10.7kTCO2e from those stores alone.

DRIVER WELLBEING

The system also has an instore dashboard to help drivers manage range anxiety. Drivers report a quieter smoother experience, less fatigue, and improved wellbeing. The technology exceeded its efficiency targets and 95% of surveyed staff responded positively to the trial. JLP customers expressed positive feedback for green deliveries.

Learning from the trial is being used to inform JLP’s roll out planning with wireless charging, in particular an option for sites that require fast vehicle turnaround times or that have significant space constraints.

CLEAN AIR ZONES

Having been developed for St Katharine Docks, JLP is applying the platform to a further pilot of EVs in its Home Service fleet that started in February 2022. 

These EVs are used for customer home visits by JLP partners. These partners often travel within clean air zones and the EV vehicles provide a cleaner alternative.

FPS matched partners’ journey profiles with vehicle capabilities, identifying technically feasible and cost-effective vehicle and charging options for all 245 vehicles in the Home Services Fleet.

These vehicles use a mixture of depot, Shell recharge and home network charging which will be tracked through the platform.

TECHNOLOGY FOR GOOD

JLP is committed to significantly reducing its environmental impact. The company is seeing a wave of activism from customers who expect businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and the electrification of our eComm fleet c. 2,500 vans and c. 1000 business cars by 2030 is the next major phase of the JLP strategy to be fossil fuel free by 2030.

See the timetable of the Ambassadors’ Day, 19 January 2023

Meet with Alex and discuss how their experience can help your case for accellerating Net Zero.