Why choose an EV as a company car?

There are numerous reasons to make sure your next company car is an EV, but one of the most compelling is the potential savings you can make compared with running a petrol or diesel vehicle. For instance, if you recharge your car at home, it should cost less than £10 to add 200 miles worth of range, whereas it costs £69.56 to fill a typical diesel car.

Owing to fewer parts, servicing an EV should be cheaper, too – according to vehicle data giant Cap HPI, over three years and 60,000 miles, it costs much less to service and maintain an electric vehicle when compared with a petrol variant, while service intervals are normally longer, too.

What are the incentives for choosing an EV?

While EVs are rapidly growing in popularity, they only made up 8.7% of all company car registrations in 2020, so it is still a relatively niche market compared with petrol and diesel registrations. The government appears to recognise one of the best ways to boost the number of EVs on the road is to insensitive fleet customers.

EVs currently attract preferential Benefit-in-Kind rates; in the 2021/22 financial year EVs are placed in the 1% Benefit-in-Kind tax bracket, while from 2022/23 through to 2024/25, EVs fall into the 2% bracket. By comparison, a driver of a relatively low-emission petrol or diesel car (for instance, one that emits 100g/km of CO2) will be put into the 25% bracket from 2022/23.

How much could a company car driver save with an EV?

The potential tax savings by switching to an EV genuinely are huge. comparing its Model 3 EV against a BMW 520d which emits 110g/km of CO2, the American vehicle manufacturer has calculated a company car driver can save £300 a month in Benefit-in-Kind payments. That’s £3,600 a year!

How can an EV fleet show your company is doing the ‘right’ thing?

As well as the ability to cut costs, EVs have the potential to boost a company’s image – if it runs a fleet of electric vehicles, it gives off the impression the business is committed to doing its bit to reduce pollution. For this reason – as well as the reasons mentioned above – firms are increasingly restricting their company car choice lists to only including EVs.

For drivers in a customer-facing role – for instance salespeople – turning up to a meeting a zero-emission vehicle will look far better than if they arrive in a gas-guzzler, too.

What are the advantages of EVs for those who live and work in cities?

If you drive into London frequently, an electric vehicle could potentially save you thousands of pounds a year, as EVs are exempt from the Congestion Charge and Ultra-Low Emission Zone fees – at present, the entering the C-Charge in a non-compliant car costs £15 a day.

In addition to the London Congestion Charge and ULEZ, a number of Clean Air Zones are due to be implemented throughout the country, however, owing an EV isn’t as advantageous as you may first think – the minimum standard for many is Euro 4 for petrol cars and Euro 6 for diesel cars, and even a three-year old company car is more than compliant – EU6 came into effect from 2015.

Are there any plans for pure EV zones?

Oxford is planning to trial a ‘Zero Emission Zone’ from August, whereby only 100% zero emission vehicles are able to be used in the zone free of charge. Other vehicles are permitted in the zone but will be charged from £2 to £10 per day (rising to between £4 and £20 per day from August 2025) to drive in the zone between 7am and 7pm.

If this trial reduces pollution it is likely other towns and cities may follow suit, and if ZEZs are widespread across the country an EV will come into its own by allowing you to dodge charges.

BiK table

CO2 (g/km)	Electric range (miles)	2020-21 (%)	2021-22 (%)	2022-23 (%)	2023/24 (%)	2024/25 (%)
0	N/A	0	1	2	2	2
1-50	>130	0	1	2	2	2
1-50	70-129	3	4	5	5	5
1-50	40-69	6	7	8	8	8
1-50	30-39	10	11	12	12	12
1-50	<30	12	13	14	14	14
51-54		13	14	15	15	15
55-59		14	15	16	16	16
60-64		15	16	17	17	17
65-69		16	17	18	18	18
70-74		17	18	19	19	19
75-79		18	19	20	20	20
80-84		19	20	21	21	21
85-89		20	21	22	22	22
90-94		21	22	23	23	23
95-99		22	23	24	24	24
100-104		23	24	25	25	25
105-109		24	25	26	26	26
110-114		25	26	27	27	27
115-119		26	27	28	27	27
120-124		27	28	29	29	29
125-129		28	29	30	30	30
130-134		29	30	31	31	31
135-139		30	31	32	32	32
140-144		31	32	33	33	33
145-149		32	33	34	34	34
150-154		33	34	35	35	35
155-159		34	35	36	36	36
160-164		35	36	37	37	37
165-169		36	37	37	37	37
170+		37	37	37	37	37