Ok, so it wasn’t exactly free but with solar panels installed at home thanks to the Government’s FiT scheme, James was soon coasting around South Wales at a fraction of the cost of petrol motoring. He was easily able to fit a return trip to work (20 miles), visit to local clients (36 miles) and a much needed trip to th

e pub (distance hazy) into a single charge.

After some initial scepticism from the RUMM team, a quick test ride in the Leaf soon changed their tone. With a maximum range of 110 miles, a 0-60mph time of around 7 seconds and an equivalent fuel efficiency of 350mpg the Leaf is certainly turning heads and breaking the stigma of electric vehicle limitations.

The trial conveniently coincided with Mr Cameron’s announcement of an imminent strike from fuel distribution companies causing a spate of panic buying at the pumps. Amongst all the commotion a rather smug Energy Manager cruised past, albeit rather quietly.

Of course there is still plenty of work to be done in improving factors such as range and charging time and also reducing technology costs. However, with government grants of up to £5,000 for individuals willing to invest in the technology and next generation vehicles looking likely to have ranges around 200 miles the

future looks bright for electric vehicles.

It may not be long before RUMM’s ‘current’ Energy Team, ‘leaf’ their petrol power days behind them and are kitted out with a whole fleet of electric vehicles.

This year’s Exhibition took place for the first time at the NEC,Birmingham on the 13^th & 14^th of September.

RUMM attended the event withtheir partner, UES Energy this year. Both RUMM and UES’s joint presence at the event was felt strongly thanks to a new stand that highlighted a total energy management solution provided by both companies.

RUMM and UES decided to jointly exhibit at the exhibition as both companies worked very well together and realised that they had an excellent strategic fit to deliver maximum savings for their customers. The Energy Event proved to be a perfect platform to work together and present a total energy management solution.

An impressive 3,500 attendees turned up at this year’s event. Over 50% of visitors to the stand have requested further meetings and site visits. RUMM is confident that both RUMM and UES will be able to turn these opportunities into solid contracts for the future; we are already in discussions with many who visited.

During the event a business card prize draw was held on our stand to win a solar powered sound system for an I-pod/I-Phone. We are proud to announce that the winner of this draw was Matthew Word from Barratt Developments PLC.

Andrew Diplock, Managing Director, UES Energy commented: “The Energy Event, with an audience drawn from right across our UK marketplace, was the ideal platform from which to launch both our new brand and the strategic alliance with RUMM.  This partnership enables us to deliver clients beginning-to-end energy management services from procurement and validation to monitoring and reporting of consumption.

Visitors were once again impressed with the ongoing research that RUMM continue to demonstrate through the University of Glamorgan, our research partner. This is done through various PHD programmes.

RUMM has once again already experienced a taste of more potential partnership opportunities. We are working on a strategic alliance with SSE and a number of their key personnel came to review our product portfolio on the stand.

Jamie Watkins, Business Development & Marketing Director of RUMM stated “It was refreshing once again to see the amount of companies that have taken the initiative to address their energy management problem. It was especially refreshing that there was so much interest in our offering.

Both David and James are the two latest additions to the Energy Team and will work closely with clients to ensure their energy management and energy legislations are  being addressed, achieving a reduction in their utility bills and carbon footprint.

David and James have already begun working with one of our most recent clients, Welsh Water.