With the price of petrol and diesel rising and rising, many business owners are looking for a cheaper alternative to reduce their electricity costs. If you are a local taxi company, a delivery driver or a driving school, you just might benefit from an electric vehicle.
Going Electric
With technology improving all the time and more charging points appearing around the country. Driving an electric vehicle makes sense for business owners who drive locally. Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions, who are one of the UK’s leading vehicle specialists recently collaborated with British Gas in a pilot scheme to test 28 electric vans which were supplied to British Gas Engineers.
The six month project was deemed to be a great success and in fact British Gas has ordered a fleet of 50 Nissan eNV200 electric vans and they want 50 more by December this year, in their effort to ensure that 10% of their entire fleet is electric by 2017.
Things To Think About With Electric Vehicles
Your daily mileage should be under 100 miles, since the electric cars on the market at the moment have a battery range of between 70 and 100 miles before they will need charging up again. You will need off-road parking in order to install a charging point, or points, or plug into your normal domestic system.
If you use electric cars in the course of your business, then you should install a charging point on or nearby your premises. Although batteries can be charged up by plugging them in to a normal domestic socket, a charging unit makes charging up to two and half times quicker than a normal socket.
Vehicle Costs
Some car manufacturers only supply the battery on a lease basis, which will cost an additional sum each month ranging from around £45 to £75 pounds depending on the make of the car. However, most manufacturers include the battery in the sale price.
Electric cars are more expensive than petrol or diesel cars, but there is a government scheme which discounts £5,000 off an electric vehicle as long as it reaches certain criteria.
There are also options to lease your electric vehicle and according to Next Green Car, a typical 3 year lease on a 5 door hatchback will give you a £4,582 saving on the total cost of motoring against buying, as long as you intend to change the car after 3 years.
Savings
The difference between an electric car and one that uses fuel is said to be around 10p per mile. Servicing is also cheaper and if you live in London, you don’t pay congestion charges. Company electric cars are also free from benefit-in-kind liability and there’s road tax to pay.
As more and more people turn to electric vehicles, costs will fall and technology will improve, meanwhile fuel will just get more and more expensive. It is the future, why not join it now?
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