Electric van drivers still being short-changed on charging despite AER increase

Many electric van drivers are still being left out of pocket on charging reimbursement despite an increase to the advisory electric rate (AER).

First introduced in 2018, the rate was increased last week from 4 to 5 pence per mile, helping to ensure fairer compensation for drivers charging electric vehicles.

But the increased rate is still far from fair for van drivers, according to TMC data.

Its analysis shows the average cost based on home charging an eLCV is 7.8ppm. In fact, the only vehicle that costs less than 5ppm to charge is the Renault Kangoo E-Tech.

And if the cost of public charging is factored in – which LCV drivers are very likely to use as only around 30% have the ability to charge at home – the AER falls even further short.

As such, TMC is continuing its call for a higher AER for vans – and for larger electric cars – because the actual cost per mile for domestic charging is as much as 130% higher than the AER for vans based on the WLTP figure.

“These figures are best-case scenario as they are based on the WLTP and the driver charging their vehicle at home. The majority of van drivers will use public charge points, which increases the cost per mile considerably,” said Paul Miers, TMC’s chief data officer.

“The other factor to consider is that these figures are for unladen vans. Once you add in racking, equipment and tools, there will be even more upward pressure on the actual cost per mile.”

The table below shows the cost of running electric vans using three different scenarios compiled by TMC’s team of data analysts.

Column 1 shows the cost per mile based on WLTP data, using home charging for all vehicle charging.

Column 2 shows the cost per mile based on the same data but with power consumption per mile raised by 15 per cent to reflect real world battery usage.

Column 3 uses the same data as column 2 but assumes a mix of 75% home charging and 25% public charging.

For all examples costs are calculated using electricity priced at 17.4p/kWh for home charging– the last published data point by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) – and 30p/kWh for public charging.

Paul Hollick, TMC’s managing director, said it was unreasonable to expect van drivers to be out of pocket for charging company vehicles, and that the fairest way to reimburse van drivers was at actual cost.

“This is relatively simple for LCV drivers where telematics are fitted,” he explained. “Once drivers have provided details of their energy supplier, tariff and home postcode, they can be auto reimbursed – we simply take their telematics feed and overlay their charging events with the longitude and latitude to identify when the vehicle is charged at their home and reimburse them accordingly.”

TMC’s data on the real-world cost of charging electric vans: