A parked ID.5 being charged with a couple walking close by

Getting your business EV ready

Beyond the vehicle

Here, we look at how fleet decision-makers can manage this transition to electric vehicles. From long-term planning to stakeholder engagement and fleet policy changes, its more straightforward than you might think.

Plan for the long-term

When electrifying your fleet, putting in place a long-term plan flexible enough to meet your short-term, changing needs is important. Achieve this and your electrification strategy will deliver today and in future. 

A white ID.7 on the road

Managing every stakeholder

Electrification has the potential to involve many business stakeholders – internal and external. It’s crucial you consider these parties and how they might be affected to ensure a smooth transition to EVs.

  • A gold ID.3 parked on a road with a woman walking away from it

    Identify stakeholder network

    Along with drivers and the senior management team, you may need input from HR, finance, facilities and even sustainability team.

  • Two men getting into a VW ID.7 Tourer car

    Build the business case

    Demonstrate the potentially lower life running costs of EVs, and the benefits: tax savings and lower emissions.

  • A man sat inside a Volkswagen ID.7 car

    Communicate the benefits

    Get everyone on board with the lower SMR costs, tax savings and lower emissions EVs can deliver.

Updating fleet policies

Moving from ICE to EV will necessitate changes to existing fleet policies. Focus on the following areas:

  • Vehicle choice lists

    While job-need vehicles will already meet defined parameters, user-chooser models might benefit from a refresh – you could include requirements like range and charging speeds.

  • Charging policies

    Public charging can be more expensive than home or workplace charging, driving up lifetime costs. Put appropriate policies in place – for example, mandate certain public chargers or agree fair use for workplace charging.

  • Mileage reimbursement

    With the cost differential between home, workplace and public charging, drivers need clarity over reimbursement. Factor in that not all drivers will have access to home charging.

  • Servicing and maintenance requirements

    EVs have a different servicing cycle to ICE vehicles, so you might need to update guidance around maintenance to ensure they remain roadworthy.

  • Driver training and information

    EVs handle differently to ICE vehicles, which is why it’s important drivers understand how to get the best from their vehicle and manage any issues they encounter.

Tax benefits, grants and incentives

The government offers two schemes for businesses to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles. These are the EV Infrastructure Grant and the Workplace Charging Scheme.

As charging infrastructure can be expensive, these can reduce the upfront costs of transitioning to EVs. You can find more information about both of these schemes online.

EV Infrastructure Grant Opens an external link

Workplace Charging SchemeOpens an external link

A woman standing in front of an ID.4
An ID.3 on the road

Fully electric vehicles qualify for just 2% Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) in 2024/25. This rises by 1% each year until 2028/29 when it reaches 7% before increasing to 9% in 2029/30. Attractive BiK means lower costs for drivers in the form of company car tax.

The evolution of fleet management

The transition to EVs opens up new considerations. Along with choosing vehicles based on their capabilities, energy, taxation, sustainability, scope emissions and stakeholder management all come into play. 

Sustainability

How do EVs interact with your organisation’s sustainability strategy? Generally, businesses measure and report emissions using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which breaks them down into three areas:

Scope 1

Direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by the business. EVs can reduce or even eliminate transport-related emissions under Scope 1.

Scope 2

Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity and heating. Charging EVs with 100% renewable energy can make EVs truly ‘zero-emission’ vehicles. 

Scope 3

Indirect emissions upstream or downstream of your business’s operations. For example, EVs certified as carbon-neutral on delivery can reduce your Scope 3 emissions.

Energy

As well as how ‘green’ your electricity is, you’ll need to understand your workplace’s power supply, consumption and available power capacity. This will determine your charging infrastructure strategy.

Facilities

You may need to work with your site’s facilities team or landlord to understand building regulations and planning permissions before advancing your charging infrastructure plans.

Next steps

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Request a demo

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Contact the fleet team

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Calculate your cost of ownership

Next steps