Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers — a membership organization for healthcare services within Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) — told CNBC in an email that workers were struggling to fuel their vehicles and get to work, despite government ministers reassuring the public that supply is beginning to stabilize.
“This is a particular issue for NHS staff who deliver services in the community and to remote wards,” she said Thursday. “Trusts will be working with national NHS teams and with their local partners to ensure any disruption to patients is minimized, including through changes to working patterns for community staff and through accommodation in local hotels if needed.”
NHS hospitals and some other health services in England are governed by more than 200 geographically designated trusts, which are run by boards of directors.
“Trust leaders are telling us that fuel supplies for ambulances are not being disrupted. But reports that non-emergency patient transport services are experiencing issues accessing fuel, and the knock-on effects this could have for vulnerable patients, is concerning,” Cordery added.
Meanwhile, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation — a membership organization for the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland — called on the government to encourage people not to panic buy fuel, which he said could potentially disrupt patient services.
“The NHS has a range of contingency measures it can enact locally if there are problems with its staff getting into hospital, most typically when there is very bad weather,” Taylor said via email on Thursday.
“However, many health and care workers across the country rely on their cars to get to work, so this situation, if not handled appropriately by the government, still has the potential to affect the delivery of vital services to some of our most vulnerable people in society.”
U.K. government ministers have, in recent days, taken some steps to attempt to mitigate the impact of the gasoline shortages, which have left swathes of gas stations around the country out of fuel. Those moves include temporary visas for truck drivers, suspending competition laws for the fuel industry and even mobilizing the army to carry out fuel deliveries.
The government has also urged people to buy fuel as normal, claiming that the situation is now beginning to stabilize.
The NHS Confederation’s Taylor told CNBC on Thursday that before the fuel crisis, two-thirds of its members had already said understaffing was putting patient care and safety at risk — and this fuel crisis could add to some of the strains brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Any disruption caused by the ‘petrol panic’ could make this worse, as well as affect the delivery of vital supplies,” he said. “As the NHS gears up for what is expected to be a very busy winter, this situation is incredibly worrying.”
Throughout the pandemic, NHS services built up a huge backlog of patients waiting to be seen by specialists or receive treatment, as lockdowns, isolating healthcare workers and doctors transferring to Covid wards interrupted normal operations.
Earlier this month, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that his government would be hiking taxes from April to give the NHS additional funding to help it work through the waiting list build-up.
Volkswagen is advertising its 2024 ID.4 Standard at $999 down, $149/month for 24 months. That’s an average monthly lease cost of just $184/month plus tax and license, making it the cheapest of all January EV lease offers we’ve found.
We haven’t seen a great lease deal like this on a five-passenger electric SUV since last April, when Toyota slashed the average lease cost of its bZ4X XLE down to $191/month for 2023 model and $227/month for a 2024 model. In-stock bZ4X inventories were depleted in a few weeks, and dealers subsequently started to hike their asking prices as they collected deposits for ordered and in-transit vehicles. It stands to reason that the same phenomena could occur with this incredible ID.4 lease offer, so act quickly if you’re intrigued by this deal.
Equipped with a 62kWh battery and a single motor that drives the rear wheels, the ID.4 in Standard trim (MSRP $41,160) can travel 206 miles on a full charge and achieve 60mph from standstill in 7.3 seconds. Consumers that require more range or performance can opt for an array of higher trim levels, ranging from the ID.4 Pro RWD (291 miles, 0-60mph in 6.1 seconds, MSRP $46,300) to the top-of-the-line fully-equipped ID.4. Pro S AWD (263 miles, 0-60mph in 4.6 seconds, MSRP $55,300).
For those that prefer to buy rather than lease, Volkswagen is running a $10,500 Retail Customer Bonus Cash incentive on the ID.4 which means that the ID.4 Standard can be bought for just $30,660.
As far as dealer offers, a quick survey of a few VW dealers shows that VW of Thousand Oaks in southern California, VW of West Islip in New York and King VW in Maryland have dealer discounts of about $2000 that should stack on top of manufacturer incentives to lower the monthly cost of a lease or reduce the final price on a purchase.
Hamburger Hochbahn AG operates the city of Hamburg’s bus system, and they’ve just placed an order with Daimler Buses for 350 fully electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro buses to be delivered to the northern German city for use as zero-emission public transport.
Hamburger Hochbahn AG becomes the latest bus operator to put in a major order with Daimler – as I type this, fully 95 examples of the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro electric buse have already been deployed on the streets of Hamburg through Vhh.mobility, with both Mercedes and Vhh.mobility calling the bus fleet’s arrival a major step towards CO2-neutral local transport.
“I am very pleased that, together with vhh.mobility, we can make a significant contribution to emission-free local transport in the Hamburg metropolitan region,” says Till Oberwörder, CEO of Daimler Buses. “Our battery-electric eCitaro city bus offers an excellent overall package: The modern, long-range electric drive ensures that passengers reach their destinations quietly and locally CO2-neutrally. Advanced assistance systems also increase safety in all road traffic conditions.”
When discussing their order, Hamburger Hochbahn AG representatives said they were particularly impressed by the low total cost of ownership (TCO) and the ease of maintenance offered by the Mercedes eCitaro electric bus over its service life.
Electric equipment from XCMG can now be ordered with interchangeable battery swap tech, enabling heavy trucks and construction equipment to swap out their BYD-developed, 400 kWh battery packs in just three minutes, and top-off as quickly as diesel.
And we’re not just talking about off-highway and heavy equipment – the XCMG’s swappable BYD batteries are making their way to on-road trucks as well … but we’ll get to that.
XCMG ZNK95 electric autonomous haul truck
XCMG showed off its latest electric equipment at last month’s Bauma China show, including an updated version of its of its 85-ton autonomous electric mining truck. Known as the ZNK95 (above), the truck features a fully cab-less design – meaning there isn’t even a place for an operator to sit, let alone operate. That’s too bad, too, because what operator wouldn’t want to experience a dedicated permanent magnet synchronous electric drive system capable of putting out 800 kW (1070 hp) and 22,000 Nm (16,200 lb-ft) of torque?
But autonomous solutions aren’t about hp and torque – they’re about keeping operators out of extreme and dangerouns environments. To that end, XCMG says its new HDEVs are fully capable of operating in high-altitude, extremely cold environments with temperatures as low as -40°C (a temp. that most diesels wouldn’t be able to start at, let alone run).
Even in those extreme climates, the XCMG gets the job done with an autonomous driving system that integrates a number of multiple cutting-edge technologies that combine environmental perception, decision-making and planning, vehicle control, and communication into a single dashboard that can be monitored by the fleet manager.
The system can even diagnose faults on individual vehicles and bring them back to service before they break down in the field – a huge potential problem if a truck or dozer gets caught underground!
The ZNK95 has already been deployed at a large, open-pit mine in Inner-Mongolia, China, that has adopted a comprehensive unmanned and electrified construction solution from XCMG Machinery for its latest “green” mining operation. The company says the mine will emit 149,000 fewer tons of harmful carbon emissions than it would with diesel haul trucks annually by the time its full order of ZNK95s is delivered in 2026.
But wait, there’s more …
If you needed a reminder that China is light-years ahead of the US when it comes to electrification tech (and, yes, I know light-years measure distance and not time – grow up), you should know that XCMG’s swappable battery tech, which features 400 kWh packs using BYD blade-style battery cells packed at a facility that’s run as a JV between XCMG and BYD, is such a non-event in a country that’s seen millions of swaps that it didn’t even merit a press release at Bauma.
In fact, the only reason I know about it at all was because I follow Etrucks New Zealand, an XCMG dealer, on LinkedIn, and he was talking it up.
“XCMG are by far the dominant EV exhibitor at Bauma Shanghai. Here a truck crane solution to swap construction machine batteries,” said Ross Linton, owner and President of Etrucks New Zealand. “Here a truck crane solution to swap construction machine batteries.”