Electric cars are growing in popularity, and are increasingly being seen as a viable mode of transport for drivers – not just those who are environmentally aware, or tech-savvy. In fact, electric cars can offer you a wealth of benefits – especially if you are thinking about investing in them for your business fleet.

The benefits of electric vehicles are clear to many car manufacturers already, with over 20 manufacturers producing electric models already – and more and more planning to join in.  This means there is now a variety of choices when it comes to EV’s (electric vehicles) so whatever your budget or needs, leasing or purchasing an electric car is now more of an attractive proposition than it ever was.

Yes, sometimes the upfront costs can be higher, but over the life of the lease, your business could benefit from major cost efficiencies, greater convenience, better performance, and less of an impact on the environment around us.

The main benefits associated with electric cars are:

• Environmental benefits. Pure electric vehicles are built without an exhaust, so they, therefore, don’t emit any exhaust gases, which has a major effect on local air pollution – especially in noisy and congested cities
• Discounts on congestion charges. If your business is based in a “Clean Air Zone” area then you will be exempt from paying any congestion charges if your business car fleet is electric vehicles. The cost savings for your business could be enormous. If you are based in London, for example, you could save up to £2875 a year per car
• Lower running costs. One of the main advantages of running an electric car is that they are much cheaper to run than petrol or diesel cars. You may also benefit from free or low-cost charging at some workplaces or council-owned sites. If your car is pure electric then you also don’t have to pay road tax, while plug-in hybrids receive a £10 discount. Electric cars also tend to have fewer moving parts than petrol or diesel cars, and so maintenance and servicing tend to be cheaper.
• Government funding towards a charging point. At the moment, the UK government is offering a Workplace Charging Scheme which provides eligible businesses with a grant towards installing workplace charging points.
• Reduced company car tax on electric cars. During 2020/2021 there was zero tax on Benefit in Kind, and this will increase to 1% in 2021/2022 and 2% in 2022/2023.
• Capital allowances for businesses. Cars with C02 emissions of less than 50g/km are eligible for 100% first-year capital allowances, so you can deduct the cost of the entire car from your pre-tax profits.

To support the wide range of business owners who are now changing over to electric car business fleets, D-Energi are now offering EV charging points for business and home. If you’d like to find out more about that, and our off-peak charging & Go Electric tariff, please get in touch.