FLEET Evolution is offering a free workplace chargepoint to any company that signs up before September 9 and subsequently orders an 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 chargepoints at businesses across the UK. This is in addition to a further 300 chargepoints provided to employees as part of their salary sacrifice package.
Now, to mark World EV Day, a global movement to promote electric driving which claims to have reached 1bn people last year, Fleet Evolution will provide a free workplace chargepoint to any business signing up before September 9th and subsequently ordering one vehicle or more through its salary sacrifice scheme.
Founder and managing director, Andrew Leech, 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 chargepoints,” he said.
Latest EV charging device grant scheme figures from the Department for Transport 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 chargepoints have currently been installed, while funding for a further 9,543 have been approved.
Leech said 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. This makes them reliant on the public charging network or workplace charging,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Government unveiled its long-awaited Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, pledging to increase the UK’s EV charge points 10-fold and reach 300,000 public EV charge points by 2030.
And in late August, the Government recognised the need for more dedicated resource with 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.
“While the latest funding boost to nine local authorities is to be welcomed of course, the Government needs to take sustained action to compel public sector investment across the board and level up the charging map for everyone,” said Leech.
