Whether you’re off for your weekly food shop or paying a visit to the local gym, you’ve probably started to notice those little electric vehicle charging points (EV charging) popping up in car parks throughout the UK (normally with a nice parking space close to the entrance!).
Apart from the obvious (charging cars), there’s a good chance you’ve wondered why businesses bother to install them in the first place. Do they make money? How often are they used? If you’re an owner of your own business facilities, you might have even deliberated whether it’s an avenue your business should look down.
Once considered a novelty, there are now over 202,000 Electric Vehicles on the road in the UK, with 60,000 of them being registered in 2018 alone. These growth figures, coupled with recent government tax increases on diesel and other non-eco-friendly cars, show’s a market very much on the up.
In the following piece, we’ll look at how YOU can take advantage of this growing market and enjoy the real benefits associated from installing electrical charging points.
Additional Revenue Stream
Everyone that uses the charging stations will be paying you to charge their vehicles. Yes, you’ll be using more electricity which will be reflected in your bills, but, if you have the right energy contracts in place, you’ll begin to see a nice profit emerging that can be invested elsewhere into your business. Some firms have even took the extra step of generating their own energy from renewables (e.g. solar) and battery storage, allowing them to truly maximise their margins.
Simply speaking, you’re creating a new revenue stream that didn’t exist before. And the best thing about it? It’s a growing market. As we said earlier, the number of electric cars on UK roads grew by over 25% in 2018 alone. If you think the market is profitable now, just think where it could be in a few years’ time.
Drive traffic and new custom to your business
Whilst onsite charging points are ideal for staff with electric vehicles, don’t forget that people from outside your business will be drawn to your premises as well.
Charging points are still few and far between in many areas of the UK, so drivers will often use websites such as zap map to find the nearest one. How many people would turn down that additional footfall, especially if you’re a shop or store owner? Imagine your store’s car park has a charging point and your competitor doesn’t, which destination is someone driving an electric vehicle likely to choose?
Depending on the nature of your business, you might even want to consider offering the electricity for free, as the extra footfall to your site could provide revenue far exceeding what you’d charge for electricity.
Employee retention
Providing EV charging in the workplace is cost-effective way to retain and actively support your employees. Simply by switching to electric vehicles and having the facility to charge at work, studies have shown that your staff can save up to £2,000 in petrol or diesel costs.
You could even look into the possibility of providing the charging free for employees as an additional staff perk. This would cost approximately £150 a year per employee. We’re aware that there are so many factors contributing to an employees’ happiness, but, small gestures of goodwill such as this can go a long way towards improving staff engagement.
Tax advantages when purchasing electric company cars
With charging stations already onsite, it could be wise to consider purchasing electric vehicles as part of your fleet.
With an electric vehicle, you can benefit from as low as 7% benefit-in-kind tax as opposed to 20% for a typical petrol or diesel car.
Purchasing electric vehicles will also make your business eligible for ‘Enhanced Capital Allowances’, which significantly increases the amount of allowance you can write down against taxable profits each year.
Businesses can also claim 100% allowance on the acquisition of electric charge points. However, please note that this allowance will expire on 31 March 2019 (for Corporation Tax purposes) and 5 April 2019 (for Income Tax purposes) so don’t hang around!
EV Charging Reduces Carbon Footprint
Last, but certainly not least, implementing electric vehicles also helps your business achieve your environmental targets by dramatically reducing your CO² emissions and the amount of carbon tax paid on those emissions.
What next?
Here at GAS, we work with the largest, leading UK installer of EV charging equipment to help businesses perfect their energy strategy and lead the way to a cleaner, cheaper and more efficient future.
Whether you’re private or public sector based, we can help you implement the correct package for you.
Simply give us a call on 0800 140 3514 or fill in our contact form and we’ll be in touch!