Fleets offered free charge point to mark World EV Day

Fleet Evolution is offering a free workplace charge point to any company that signs up before World EV Day on September 9 and orders an electric vehicle (EV) through its salary sacrifice scheme.

Fleet Evolution currently offers a free workplace chargepoint to any customer with five or more of its cars on the fleet, an initiative which has seen it provide around 100 free charge points to businesses across the UK.

This is in addition to a further 300 charge points provided to employees as part of their salary sacrifice package.

Now, to mark World EV Day, Fleet Evolution will provide a free workplace charge point to any business signing up before September 9th and subsequently ordering one vehicle or more through its salary sacrifice scheme.

Fleet Evolution founder and managing director, Andrew Leech (pictured), said: “We are happy to support World EV Day by providing a workplace chargepoint free of charge as we firmly believe that, for the majority, switching to an EV is simpler and cheaper than running a diesel - as well as the obvious green benefits this delivers.

“But, while we remain committed to helping UK businesses go electric for cost and environmental reasons, our big worry currently is the lack of investment by local authorities in public charge points.”

Latest EV charging device grant scheme figures from the Department for Transport (DfT) reveal that just 107 local authorities across the UK, around one third, have successfully applied for On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS).  

Only 2,869 public charge points have currently been installed, while funding for a further 9,543 have been approved.

Leech explained that there were around 40% of households without a driveway, parking space or garage, while data from chargepoint app, Zap-Map, showed that the percentage of on-street households that were within five minutes’ walk of a public charger had increased from 12% to 17%.

“But this still means there are many areas where drivers do not have dedicated off-street parking, or access to driveways or garages where they can charge their EVs,” continued Leech. “This makes them reliant on the public charging network or workplace charging.”

The Government has allocated an extra £20 million for nine local authorities in a pilot scheme to install 1,000 public charge points.

The local authorities winning a share of the initial £20m funding, as part of the designated £450 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund, were Barnet, Dorset, Durham, Kent, Midlands Connect with Lincolnshire as a lead authority, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Warrington.