Commercial Blog

As the 2030 deadline for buying new combustion engine vehicles looms, electric car sales are beginning to ramp up. But the greatest changes are happening in commercial fleets - in 2020, businesses bought twice as many EVs as private individuals.

This may in part be due to the many incentives for companies to go electric, such as tax breaks for company cars. There is also the long-running grant scheme for installing chargepoints, which is due for a shakeup early next year...

On 9^th July, the government launched its “Road to Zero Strategy” to lead the world in zero emission vehicle technology.

Not to be confused with any other ‘Road to Zero’ or ‘Round in Circle’ government strategies, this one is all about ensuring at least 50% of cars are ultra-low emission by 2030, and ensuring that the infrastructure is in place to support this.

If you’re in charge of a ‘workplace’, the good news is that on the back of Road to Zero, the Workplace Charging Scheme will now contribute 75% of purchase and installation costs (up to a maximum of £500) towards the cost of each charging socket installed. 

The grant is available for to 20 chargepoints per applicant, across all sites.

In other words, up to £10,000 per business.

By 2020, a business with 100 employees can expect to have 10 employees with an electric car. 

Time flies, and guess what, 2020 is only 22 months away... No surprise then that many businesses are making their first foray into the world of electric car chargers to give their customers, staff and fleet the necessary EV charging infrastructure. 

As they do so, they are realising that EV charging not only represents an opportunity to make their business a better place to work for employees and boost their CSR credentials, it also provides a potential new revenue stream, albeit a modest one unless installed at scale (see a brief summary of the business case).

The question is, if you want to install EV chargers at work, what functionality should you look for, and which brand should you choose?