In focus
Above: Despite initial resistance combined with limitied vehicle choices, E.ON has made great strided towards meeting it’s European EV-only target by 2030.
office one or two days a month – maybe that’s reduced the uptake slightly.”
At the time of our call, Smith said the company was considering an EV drive day at its Coventry headquarters as part of a broader range of measures to promote salary sacrifice. It did the same for company car drivers around the time of the original push for electric, and he says it proved a good way to jumpstart the initiative.
“We did a joint EV day where we got about 10 different makes and models on site, and anyone could come and have a go. That kind of got it up and running… and perhaps it’s something we ought to do again in 2025 to give it [salary sacrifice] a push, because it’s a great scheme, and the benefits are fantastic.”
Drivers who opt for cash allowance are also in Smith’s sights. He says around 350 employees in the company car scheme are cash takers, and he began promoting the benefits of the former in the middle of last year.
“We did a couple of promotions about the company car scheme, just trying to advertise the benefits of being in it,” he explains, “as a result of that – and me chasing a couple of times as well – we got 50 of those people, and they’re now in electric company cars. “We hadn’t necessarily concentrated on them previously… and again, part of our 2025 strategy is to start working on those 300 that are left, because at some point, there will be a decision with the board about whether we mandate that. We’re financing those cash takers and still paying the money for that car allowance, so do we then stop pushing those people into EVs if they’re not naturally progressing? We want to do it all naturally first, so we’re not forcing people down the route, but there comes a time when there’s going to be a small group of people who just aren’t going to make that move.”
Above: The company offers a host of incentives to help persuade company drivers to make the switch to EVs.
The third and final of the bolt-ons is rental – also not an easy thing to electrify. While hire companies will happily trumpet their EV fleets, the drop-and-go nature of rental does not marry up well with EVs, especially if the driver is unfamiliar with them.
Smith agrees that electrification has been tough on the rental sector: “They’ve been a bit slow on the uptake, but it’s probably harder for them to get their fleets to EVs over time. All of a sudden, they’re having to adopt their depots to have a lot of EV chargers, for example. Then what happens when they’ve got a delivery, and they’ve got to get it up to a 100% charge before they drop it off? There are lots of challenges.” He says E.ON typically gets through around 150-200 hire cars a month, the EV share of which was 15% in 2024. He is aiming for 50% this year, which is a
big jump, and plans to promote them “naturally” in the coming months, then potentially start mandating electric rentals in 2026 if take-up is sluggish. However, one of the methods already in motion is to supply drivers with something a bit tastier than your average cheap and cheerful rental car.
“Hertz [E.ON’s go-to rental firm] are increasing their range of Polestars quite significantly,” Smith explains, “that’s a great selling point for us, because we can say, ‘actually if you don’t have a group B Fiat Cinquecento or a Vauxhall Corsa or something – you’ll get a Polestar if you choose an EV’.
“And I must admit, the kind of feedback we’ve had from that 15% of colleagues who are having EVs as their hire cars – they would never go back. They absolutely love them.”
www.businesscar.co.uk | March/April 2025 | 33
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