The ultimate guide to fleet electrification

Should your business transition to an electric fleet?

The days of the diesel fleet are nearing their end.

With the 2030 ban on the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars looming, it’s likely that you’re starting to think about when and how you should transition your fleet drivers into electric vehicles. 

And while it is an inevitability that one day you will be managing an electric fleet, there are so many other benefits to taking the plunge and making the switch. Electric vehicles can help your business go green, drive sustainability initiatives, and save money in the process.

It helps that zero-emission electric driving can also be a lot of fun.

But to help you get started on the road to EV, we’ve pulled together our top tips on fleet electrification.

What are electric vehicles?

An electric vehicle (EV) runs on electricity rather than petrol or diesel, even if it’s only partially electric-powered. They’ve become popular over the last few years for their zero-emission status, as well as the potential to save money when compared to a traditional combustion engine car. 

There are three types of EVs: battery electric vehicles (BEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV).

Which one you pick for your fleet will depend on the requirements of the driver and the job, access to charging stations and your business needs. Investing in an electric fleet can be expensive initially, but the cost savings will pay off over time, helping you to balance those all-important books.

Battery electric vehicles are 100% electric and have no petrol engine. PHEVs have both an electric motor and a combustion engine and recharge by being plugged into an electric charger. 

Regular hybrid vehicles, on the other hand, have both an electric motor and a combustion engine, but cannot be plugged into a charger and instead regain charge through regenerative braking.

The benefits of electric vehicles

Though switching your fleet to electric does come with its own challenges, there are plenty of benefits that offset the initial investment and ongoing admin. 

These benefits include:

• Lower operational and maintenance costs
• Environmental and sustainability benefits
• Vehicle safety

Reducing your fleet's dependency on fossil fuels like petrol and diesel can save you money. Though an EV can be a larger initial expense than its combustion engine counterpart, you could save money on its whole life costs. 

Not only are electric cars cheaper to charge than to fill up with fuel, but overall running costs tend to be lower too. There are fewer moving parts in electric vehicles, which means less maintenance, and less money spent overall.

Electric vehicles also tend to end up safer than petrol or diesel cars. 

This is particularly true of your grey fleet drivers, who might be in cars that are over five years old and not equipped with the latest safety tech. Switching them into an electric salary sacrifice car can help to keep them safer on the roads, because of the stringent safety testing EVs go through, and the abundance of safety tech available in modern cars. 

And of course, the environmental benefits tend to be the biggest driver for companies making the change.

Because electric cars don’t release any tailpipe emissions, switching your fleet drivers to EVs can help your business hit its sustainability goals and reduce its carbon footprint. And if your business is based in a city with Ultra Low Emission Zones, or your drivers are often in these areas in other cities, you’ll save money on the congestion charge.

How much do electric vehicles cost?

How much each EV costs your business is going to vary depending on a number of factors.

If you’re just looking at the initial investment, it might look like those cars are more expensive and not worth the hassle, when the whole life cost will give you a more accurate figure of how much each vehicle will cost you over the course of the electric car lease.

Alongside any monthly finance payments, the cost of charging will likely be the biggest ongoing expense and will have the biggest impact on your bottom line. But it’s also the biggest saving you’ll make, in comparison to a petrol or diesel fleet car.

Working out the cost of a full charge is easy: simply multiply the cost of the energy by the battery size. For example, on a 30p per kWh tariff, it would cost £15 to fully charge an EV with a 50kWh battery.

This cost will increase if you mainly rely on public or rapid chargers, because these tend to be more expensive.

But, even with the increase in electricity costs, it often still works out cheaper to recharge an electric car, especially if the car is charged overnight on a domestic EV specific tariff, or a workplace electricity tariff. 

How far can an electric vehicle drive?

Alongside the cost, the vehicle’s range is likely to be one of your biggest concerns.

While, even just a few years ago, this would have been a serious consideration and a much bigger blocker in making the switch, electric technology has come so far now that unless your drivers are regularly covering hundreds of miles with no access to a charger, you should have no issues with the range.

There are plenty of cars on the market with ranges between 200 and 300, and some that have official ranges of above 300. And this is only set to get better, with manufacturers looking to increase how far their cars can drive all the time.

If you can treat your electric fleet cars like a smartphone, and ensure they’re plugged in most evenings, your drivers should have no issues getting to where they need to be everyday.

Should I transition my fleet to electric?

The answer to this is really going to depend on your business’s needs.

With the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars approaching faster every year, eventually your fleet drivers will have to switch into EVs. But how quickly you transition your fleet over is going to depend on what your drivers want, what your drivers need, and the business’s ability to support the additional infrastructure needed.

Introducing an electric car salary sacrifice scheme and helping your grey fleet drivers into newer electric vehicles can be a cost-effective way to start implementing an electric vehicle policy, without having to make a massive financial commitment.

But ultimately, if your business has the ability to support a fleet of electric vehicles, and you have sustainability goals you need to hit, making the switch sooner rather than later is the right choice for you. 

What do I need to think about when switching my fleet to EV?

There are several considerations you’ll need to take into account when making the transition to electric. These include:

• Whole life cost
• Charging infrastructure
• Battery life
• Driving range

While the whole life cost can help you evaluate the financial impact of making the switch, ensuring you have the right charging infrastructure in place is going to potentially be the most disruptive part of the electric transition.

The good news is that once you have workplace chargers installed, they’re set up and ready for use no matter how many electric vehicles you add to your fleet. You could even think about installing solar panels at the same time, to keep charging costs down and save even more money.

Driving range is another big consideration, but with an abundance of long range vehicles on the market already, and more set to launch over the next few years, it shouldn’t be a massive barrier to EV transition.

And while battery life is something to bear in mind, it’s also not going to be a big problem for most of your electric vehicles.

Most manufacturers claim that their EVs have a battery life of around 500,000 miles, but that degradation can start at around 30,000 miles. This essentially means that at some point, the car’s battery will stop being able to charge to its full potential, and you might see a slight decline in driving range towards the end of the lease period.

How telematics can help you make the switch

If you’re dubious about whether your business has the capacity to support an electric fleet, collecting telematics data can provide you with strong evidence either way.

This data will show how far your drivers are going on a regular basis, and you can work out the average mileage from here and therefore which cars are going to be suitable for your drivers.

Telematics data can also help with the ongoing transition, especially if drivers are a little nervous about switching to electric, because it does require a change in driver behaviour. Being able to monitor data points like the charge of the car and where the nearest charging stations are on their journey can help give you and them peace of mind that they’ll be able to complete each job.

Should I install electric car charging stations?

The short answer: yes. It’ll make your life easier, and your fleet drivers' lives easier.

And, as an incentive to help businesses go greener, the government have provided businesses with the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) to make the initial costs of installation more affordable.

It’s a voucher-based scheme and provides businesses, charities and public sector organisations with financial support. It covers up to 75% of the initial costs and is capped at a maximum of £350 per socket, and 40 sockets per applicant. 

This means, for example, that if your business has four sites and you’d like to install electric chargers at all of them, you will have ten sockets available per site. 

What is the best electric car for my fleet?

Picking the best electric car for your fleet is going to come down to cost, driving range, and what the driver is using the vehicle for.

But you’ve never been so spoiled for choice: there are so many EVs available now, that you’re sure to find one that suits your budget and your needs.

If style and performance is a key factor, especially if it’s a car for someone like a director, then you’ll likely want to look at something like the Tesla Model Y or the Polestar 2. But if your drivers just need a reliable EV to get them to where they need to be and back, a smaller, more affordable EV like the Volkswagen ID.3 or the MG4 EV will be ideal.

And our expert team at Corparison are on hand to help you make that decision. With their insider industry knowledge and first-hand experience, there’s no-one better placed to answer all your electric questions.