Fleet managers and businesses buying plug-in vans made by Transit, Daimler, Faam, Mia Electric,
Renault and Smith Electric will be eligible for a grant of 20% of the cost (up to £8,000), in the new
Plug-in Van Grant scheme announced by the Department of Transport.

The scheme is intended to help businesses where vans make predictable journeys each day with
frequent stops, and return to an overnight base where they can be recharged.

It has been estimated that a small electric van will typically cost £100 less in fuel for every thousand miles driven compared to a diesel equivalent, although the Plugged In Fleets report, issued by the Climate Group, showed that using cheaper off-peak rate electricity resulted in average annual savings of £121 and £236 for passenger cars and vans respectively compared to charging at peak times. Business charging schedules for electricity are typically more complex than domestic charging, with half-hourly billing resolution, compared to the binary peak/off peak found in domestic situations. This enables businesses to get even more cost advantage from cherry-picking the exact ime periods in which they charge their electric fleets.

Erik Fairbairn, CEO of POD Point said: “Back office systems for monitoring energy use will become
increasingly important as businesses move to electric vehicles. Fleet Managers will want to ensure
that vehicles are being charged at the cheapest time of day – and they may wish to network their
charge points to ensure data is captured in a format that is easy to monitor and evaluate.”