Cost of charging holding back company car switch to EVs
Mon, 20 May 2024
The high cost of motorway rapid charging is pricing some company car fleets out of making the switch to electric cars – despite the significant tax savings for both employees and businesses.
The Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) says that for fleets without access to home or depot charging, the cost of public charging can make EV running costs unsustainable.
AFP chair Paul Hollick said using a public charger on the motorway can be 80p per kWh, whereas those who have a charger on their drive will pay a quarter of that or less - or even single figures on an EV tariff.
"It’s a difficult situation. If you have drivers who live in a terraced house or an apartment, so can’t install a charger at home – and who also don’t often visit a location with car park or depot charging – there is no choice but to use retail charging, and it is exponentially more expensive," says Hollick.
He added the whole total cost of ownership argument in favour of EVs is based around low-cost charging.
"Electric vehicles are relatively expensive to buy and residual values remain difficult to predict, but operators should be able to at least partially balance this out with low charging costs. Where this isn’t possible, some company car fleets are simply finding themselves priced out of electrification."
Hollick says the situation won’t improve until the UK’s on-street charging infrastructure is improved, but he believes massively improved public infrastructure is the number one element that would help EV adoption.
"Not only would widespread low-cost on-street charging help fleets with affordability, it would also bring a potentially significant boost to the used EV market."
Hollick belives that without such improvements, there could be a situation where used EV prices fall to a sufficiently tempting level for used car buyers – but the charging options to them are limited, denting their appeal. "Unless people can charge economically, they are understandably unlikely to buy," he adds.
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