65 lection of waste. Sustainability, innovation and respect for the environment have therefore been at the heart of our company policy for eleven years. During this time, we have managed to achieve every goal we set ourselves to become a green company in all respects. All except one: electric mobility. In 2019, we started to improve the efficiency of the company fleet with the purchase of several hybrid vehicles and the first fully electric vehicle. Currently, hybrid and electric vehicles account for around 20% of our vehicle fleet. With the prospect of a gradual conversion of the entire vehicle fleet to the latest generation of electric engines, an electric car charging station was built in the company car park for employees and customers. It was a visionary project that was ahead of its time. Unfortunately, a few years later, this process of transforming the company fleet came to a halt. We did not turn back, but neither did we evolve due to certain obstacles such as battery autonomy, recharging times, the scarce presence of columns on the territory and the inadequacy of mechanical workshops. By persevering, we would only have created huge inconveniences for our technical area. FEW RECHARGING COLUMNS Ours is a paradoxical situation, I admit. We have a lot of electric cars and a lot of charging points, but not enough for all our employees to be able to recharge inhouse. This would mean, among other things, that they would have to return to the headquarters at the end of their shifts, while they are allowed to return to their homes in their company car, as is the practice in the lift industry. Wallboxes cannot be installed at the homes of technicians because they do not necessarily have their own garage, nor can it be relied on that they all live in areas with public charging stations. There is a lack of infrastructure; unfortunately that is a fact. And if it is difficult for us who are fairly structured, I imagine how much more difficult it can be for a small company. EXCESSIVE RECHARGE TIMES The average charging times for our electric vehicles (around 50 minutes) are too long. One option would be for the technician to recharge while he is carrying out a service. It remains to be seen whether there is a charging station in the vicinity of the building to which the employee has to go, and whether the time taken for the intervention is sufficient. Surely he cannot return to the office just to ‘fill up with electricity’. It is clear that recharging a battery takes much longer than a full tank of diesel or petrol, but the forced stop to recharge the electric car is a serious problem in the planning of all our activities. CARS AUTONOMY Every day our technicians cover an area with a high concentration of installations in a very small distance; however, we also have branch offices in high valleys and mountains. Our vehicles have an autonomy of 200-230 kilometres, but various factors can affect these values. With the heating or air conditioning in action, for example, the range drops to 120 kilometres. If there is an unforeseen problem at the end of a shift, we cannot tell the customer that the battery is exhausted and that he has to wait. WORKSHOPS AND REPAIRS Service assistance from the workshops is a critical issue, in our experience. There is still a lack of familiarity with electric vehicle faults: more time is needed to diagnose the fault and more time is needed for repair. We have had an electric vehicle in maintenance for two months, which is an infinite amount of time for our business, but I think for anyone. And this is not just a sporadic problem. A survey conducted in the US on the assistance of 19 million vehicles registered between 2016 and 2021 confirms that not only are the average repair costs of electric cars higher, but that it takes service technicians twice as long to find the fault, and 1.5 times longer to repair it. According to Federcarrozzieri, the association representing Italian body shops, repairing a new generation electric car, in the event of breakdown or damage, can now cost between 18% and 30% more than petrol or diesel cars due to higher costs for spare parts, labour, consumables such as paint, and longer and more complex repair procedures. Then there are the additional costs such as the need of an electrician professional licence, which is compulsory for repairing electric cars and working safely, and those for programming and calibrations that have to be carried out at the end of the work to get cameras, sensors and radar working properly again, explains Federcarrozzieri. This is the situation we experience in Turin, but I don’t think it is so different in the rest of Italy. Right now, our salesmen are using hybrid vehicles, the technicians diesel cars. For the rest, we are stalling to try to figure out what to do. Our company policy is to renew the company fleet every five years, so we cannot replace any vehicles at the moment. In the future, I think the electric car could be a viable option, but today it risks becoming an impediment. There is no point in wanting to be virtuous when you don’t have the tools. Among other things, the Italian car industry itself is unprepared for a transition to electric cars. The transition to the electric car, according to a study conducted by the trade unions and the employers’ representatives about a year ago, could lead to the loss of 70 thousand jobs. If this is the case, it would be a real social drama. Serious thought will have to be given to this transformation, and perhaps also to the reason why Italy was the only country in Europe to record a contraction in sales of electric cars in 2022 (-0.9%), placing it in last place with 3.7%. Let us not mention the short circuit caused by the Covid and the war in Ukraine, which have highlighted Europe’s difficulties in terms of raw materials and energy sources, with a delay in the production of electric vehicles, as well as components and batteries, and an increase in the cost of recharging. The conclusion we have come to is that all these issues make the transition to electric cars still premature. We are not ready. Electric mobility policy today is outgunned and we cannot suffer the damage of ‘mala gestio’, of mismanagement.
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