Post-pandemic EV investment acceleration: UK businesses planning £16bn EV spend

Article extract and image from https://www.centrica.com/media-centre/news/2021/post-pandemic-ev-investment-acceleration-uk-businesses-planning-16bn-ev-spend/

UK businesses are set to invest £15.8bn in the electrification of their vehicle fleets over the next year, a 50% uplift on their spending during the previous 12 months, according to new data released.

The research, commissioned by Centrica Business Solutions, revealed that UK firms spent £10.5bn on electric vehicles (EVs) and on-site charging points during the year to March 2021 but are now planning £15.8bn of investment in the same area over the next 12 months– a 50% increase year-on-year.

Rise in EVs

Two fifths (40%) of those questioned said they had increased the total number of EVs within their fleet between April 2020 and March 2021.

Of these businesses, six in ten (58%) cited the need to meet corporate sustainability targets as the biggest driving factor behind their increased adoption of EV, followed by reducing operational disruption caused by low and zero-emission zones (51%) and the attraction of the lower maintenance and whole-life costs offered by EVs (37%).

Barriers to adoption

Four in ten (43%) businesses hadn’t increased EV numbers at all and 10% decreased their EV fleet size. Range anxiety was reported as the chief concern for a third (34%) of these firms, followed by the need to prioritise business investment elsewhere during the height of the coronavirus crisis (32%).

Despite this, two-thirds (67%) of all companies polled claimed they are well-prepared to operate a fully electric fleet by 2030, when the Government’s ban on the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles comes into effect.

On-site charging

46% of businesses polled plan to install charging points on their premises to facilitate the uptake of EVs across the next twelve months, although more than a third (37%) have already installed this infrastructure. The research also revealed that three in ten (30%) firms have already invested in on-site technology capable of generating the energy to charge their fleet of EVs, such as solar panels, while almost half (48%) plan to do this in the future.

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