SME fleet drivers charging their vehicles at home could save more than a £1,000 a year by simply changing their energy providers to EV-friendly energy tariffs, says vehicle home charger and energy comparison site Rightcharge.co.uk.
Ofgem has announced that from the 1st April its price cap will return to pre-pandemic levels as a result of recovering demand pushing wholesale prices back to normal levels. Increases in wholesale pricing will result in many households paying larger electricity utility bills, including those drivers who charge their company vehicles at home.
Rightcharge say this is the perfect opportunity for fleet drivers to find more generously priced EV-friendly energy tariffs that cover charging for fully-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles – providing a combined home and vehicle charge saving on household energy costs.
For example, a fleet driver covering 20,000 miles annually would expect to pay £2,344 on a Standard Variable Tariff from one of the big six energy suppliers, which would include both household energy use and £1,300 for the charging of the vehicle. From April that total will increase to £2,599 a year, including £1,454 for charging the same car, representing an annual price increase faced by the driver of £154 for just the charging alone, potentially impacting any financial benefit in kind taxation gains drivers may have gained from swapping from a conventional diesel car to an EV.
Yet users who switch to a lower-cost alternative EV energy tariff on or after 1st April could find themselves paying only £1,349 a year – with the charging element representing just £459 of that amount. This represents a massive saving of £995 on charging a vehicle at home, with an additional £255 saved on household energy bills. That’s a total saving of £1,250 a year.
Charlie Cook, founder of Rightcharge, says many people just don’t realise what they can save. Rightcharge allows users to compare EV-friendly energy tariffs by taking their car into account as well as their home, helping customers to minimise costs for running EVs – plus special payment available for fleets. Rightcharge also helps users to select the correct charger for vehicle and home offering.
“EV-friendly energy tariffs are so incredibly cheap in comparison to a standard tariff, that a homeowner can actually start charging their car at home and reduce their total energy bill at the same time – effectively getting from A to B for free. A fleet driver doing 20,000 miles per year can save £1,250. That’s a huge saving EV fleet drivers could be making by simply switching.
“If all the current 1.04 million business contract hire drivers switched to electric cars and an EV-friendly energy tariff on the same mileage parameters, the potential saving is more than £1 billion on vehicle charging alone, plus a further £265 million on home energy costs.”
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