Fleets can reduce the cost of their workplace charging points by up to £550 per socket under a new offer from Pod Point.
The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) grants were renewed last month for a further year from 1 April but, in order to ensure more businesses benefit, grants are being slashed £150, from the previous £500 to £350, from 1 April 2020 to enable more firms to benefit.
For a limited period, Pod Point is topping up the WCS grant amount, providing up to £200 extra funding per socket for workplace and fleet charging orders. This gives businesses the ability to reduce the cost of charging points by up to £550 per socket (up to 40 sockets), enabling UK businesses to save up to £22,000 – more funding than has ever been possible with the WCS grant alone.
Erik Fairbairn, founder and CEO, Pod Point, said: “During what is a difficult time, and following OLEV’s recent reduction of the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) grant, we’re topping the grant back up for a limited period to make it easier for businesses to transition to EV.”
Fairbairn also said Pod Point still believes the expected increase in electric vehicle take-up will still happen in 2020, following the introduction of the new 0% Benefit-in-Kind rate for battery electric vehicles.
He explained: “The new 0% BiK rate for fully electric vehicles is a powerful incentive to go electric. Before coronavirus it was expected to drive a massive increase in demand for company EVs as well as the charging infrastructure needed to support them.
“We think that once things start getting back to normal, we’ll still see this happen – the savings to the driver are significant enough that even historically low crude prices will be unable to change the equation. The tangibly cleaner air we’re experiencing during lockdown is also making many drivers and businesses look more closely at electric vehicles.”
Venson Automotive Solutions has also said that drivers are more likely to switch to EVs in the wake of the lockdown, as a result of increased awareness of the benefits of reduced air pollution – with nearly half of drivers now considering a switch to electric vehicles in the future. Research carried out by Venson has revealed 45% of drivers are reconsidering their plans for electric vehicles due to the radical improvement on air pollution across the globe from reduced traffic.
Pod Point’s WCS grant top-up offer is available from now until 14 July 2020. Further details about the offer can be found here: https://pod-point.com/electric-car-news/wcs-grant-top-up-offer.
