The future is zero emissions. Start your journey today
November 2020 saw the UK Government announce the plan to phase out pure petrol and diesel vehicles from 2035. While that may seem like a long way off, it’s only going to be a couple of change cycles for your fleet, now is the time to start thinking about your own road to zero.
How does this affect fleets?
As part of the government’s post-pandemic ‘Build back better’ plans, emissions are likely to be measured and reported throughout the supply chain. This will take into account the wider aspects of business, like how staff travel to and from work, the heat and electricity used in your premises, as well as transportation and distribution upstream and downstream, and that’s just for starters.
The plan is to give a ‘green rating’ to your business by counting all its emissions; this could mean that contracts would be won or lost depending on your carbon footprint and how others view your environmental credentials.
One of the quickest and easiest ways to cut your carbon emissions is transitioning your fleet to electric. You can find out which vehicles are ready to make the switch with our Future Fleet Analysis Tool, and to help your drivers who may be unsure about making the change, we’ve got EV-4-ME?
Scope 1 are the direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, such as fuel combustion from company vehicles. Scope 2 includes emissions from the generation of purchased electricity or heating and cooling. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions in your value chain, purchased goods or services, business travel, employee commuting, investments etc.
While Scope 3 is the widest in terms of emissions, it can also be one of the easiest to make big cuts to. For example, by staff commuting to work through a salary sacrifice scheme; you could remove all your emissions for employees getting to work by making electric vehicles more affordable to those who don’t qualify for a company car.
Likewise, our Future Fleet Analysis Tool can be combined with telematics to identify those drivers who travel for business and could easily be moved into an electric vehicle.
2035 ICE vehicle ban
Pure petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned in 2035 under the current government plans; hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars and vans that can drive a significant distance with zero-emission will be sold until 2035 – the distance is yet to be defined.
Adding to this 2020 announcement, in October 2021, as part of their Net-Zero strategy, the government will set targets for a percentage of every manufacturer’s new car and van sales to be zero-emission every year, starting in 2024. That alone could limit the supply of ICE vehicles, forcing fleets to prioritise electrification far sooner than 2035.
Charge anxiety
As the usable range of electric vehicles has steadily crept up, range anxiety is soon becoming a thing of the past. Instead, fear of not being able to charge when you need to has come to prominence with EV uptake, either due to there being no nearby chargers, insufficient chargers or chargers being faulty when you get there.
An additional £620 million has been committed by the government to support the transition to electric vehicles; this funding will help the rollout of charging infrastructure, focusing on local on-street residential charging and targeted plug-in vehicle grants.
To help make life easier, all new fast and rapid chargers will feature contactless payment, so you won’t need a myriad of charge cards or apps to top up.
Grants and incentives
Government incentives have changed regularly over the years, some of them have been withdrawn without any prior notice, so it’s always better to act sooner rather than later.
Currently, the Government home charge point scheme is open to those living in rental accommodation. In addition, workplaces can claim for charge point installation, and there are tax incentives for charger installation through super deduction.
Electric vehicles forego the Lease Rental restriction along with Writing Down allowances. Benefit in Kind rates for Company Cars are also fixed and stable at 2% until 2025 after which they rise by 1% a year until 2028, making them considerably lower than traditionally fuelled vehicles.
Purchase grants remain in place for vans and vary based on the Gross Vehicle Weight.
Advisory fuel rates for electric vehicles are now 8 pence, and will be now be reviewed quarterly recognising the costs of electricity and charging trends.
Clean Air Zones
Bath, Birmingham and Portsmouth currently have clean air zones in place, with London also expanding its Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ); it’s only a matter of time before other cities follow suit. Switching your fleet to EV or plug-in hybrids can help steer clear of clean air zone charges; which can add significant costs to your business if vehicles are regularly travelling in and out of such areas – London has recently removed hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles from the congestion charge exemption, now only pure electric vehicles are exempt.
Scotland is also looking to add clean air zones in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
To find out where the clean air zones are and if you need to pay: