Fleet drivers could save £1,250 from home charging switch

Switching to the correct electricity tariff for home vehicle charging could save fleet drivers up to £1,250 a year on energy bills, according to Rightcharge.co.uk.

The vehicle home charger and energy comparison site has said that with
energy prices rising in the UK from 01 April 2021, many households will be paying larger electricity utility bills, including those drivers who charge their company vehicles at home.

But fleet drivers can access 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, it said.

The site offered the example of a fleet driver covering 20,000 miles annually, paying £2,344 on a Standard Variable Tariff from one of the big six energy suppliers – including both household energy use and £1,300 for the charging of the vehicle. But from April that total will increase to £2,599 a year – including £1,454 for charging the same car.

Users switching to a lower-cost alternative EV energy tariff could pay only £1,349 a year – with charging only £459 – creating an overall total energy saving of £1,250.

Charlie Cook, founder of Rightcharge, said of the findings: “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.”