PHEVs

[miimura]

One point about company cars is that almost every company has a scheme to pay for petrol, but hardly any have a scheme to reimburse for electricity used to charge a car. If petrol is free and you have to pay for your increased electric bill at home, that seems like a built-in disincentive to plugging in.

 

[LongRanger]

Fleet managers have a big role to play here too. They could do a lot more to be out there running education sessions, getting the manufacturers of full EV noticed more by the fleet drivers, holding demo and practical sessions on choosing, charging and living with EV etc.

If you give folks rules and force them to take notice, the herd kicks in and generally they follow.

Like masks for Covid - if you say it’s mandatory to wear masks most folks do. If you say it’s optional lots don’t, because they don’t have to not because the risk suddenly went away.

The company I work for is not brilliant on the more practical education bit - but in the last 12 months they have promoted the heck out of EV and forced all the senior management out of 530d / E300d / 330e / 530e and basically into Tesla Model 3 by removing anything over xyz g/km off the list, and increasing voucher allowances for pure EV to make it highly attractive / no-brainer to switch. They also added SR+ to the salary sacrifice scheme so even if you aren’t entitled to a company car you can choose to join the fun.

This combined with the tax ratcheting for non pure-EV has started to take effect in our business now, this year over 150 model 3’s for people with car as part of benefits package have taken non-EV off the road for our fleet. In my case it stopped a BMW M4 roaming the M4, M5, M42 and M40, as I would have gone private being as no other company car option makes any sense for my needs.

It feels like after the initial bounce of BEV-take up, we need to see that next real leg-up to taking ICE and PHEV out of the equation, but if only PHEV had a mode where you really got penalised for not using the battery, it would be much better than no EV portion being in play.

Genuinely if people can’t make BEV work for their needs in this year and next, and maybe the one after I don’t have an issue with PHEV if it was used 90+% as intended. It is a good tool for educating the herd, but it’s been marketed and rewarded as a quick fix, something the herd loves because they don’t have to put any effort into it.

Listen to me, 2 weeks into first BEV ownership preaching when I have many petrol-engined machines for maintaining smallholding and we also drive a relatively high emissions petrol car.

mmmm chainsaw.

 

[Jason71]

Fleet managers have a big role to play here too. They could do a lot more to be out there running education sessions, getting the manufacturers of full EV noticed more by the fleet drivers, holding demo and practical sessions on choosing, charging and living with EV etc.

If you give folks rules and force them to take notice, the herd kicks in and generally they follow.

Like masks for Covid - if you say it’s mandatory to wear masks most folks do. If you say it’s optional lots don’t, because they don’t have to not because the risk suddenly went away.

The company I work for is not brilliant on the more practical education bit - but in the last 12 months they have promoted the heck out of EV and forced all the senior management out of 530d / E300d / 330e / 530e and basically into Tesla Model 3 by removing anything over xyz g/km off the list, and increasing voucher allowances for pure EV to make it highly attractive / no-brainer to switch. They also added SR+ to the salary sacrifice scheme so even if you aren’t entitled to a company car you can choose to join the fun.

This combined with the tax ratcheting for non pure-EV has started to take effect in our business now, this year over 150 model 3’s for people with car as part of benefits package have taken non-EV off the road for our fleet. In my case it stopped a BMW M4 roaming the M4, M5, M42 and M40, as I would have gone private being as no other company car option makes any sense for my needs.

It feels like after the initial bounce of BEV-take up, we need to see that next real leg-up to taking ICE and PHEV out of the equation, but if only PHEV had a mode where you really got penalised for not using the battery, it would be much better than no EV portion being in play.

Genuinely if people can’t make BEV work for their needs in this year and next, and maybe the one after I don’t have an issue with PHEV if it was used 90+% as intended. It is a good tool for educating the herd, but it’s been marketed and rewarded as a quick fix, something the herd loves because they don’t have to put any effort into it.

Listen to me, 2 weeks into first BEV ownership preaching when I have many petrol-engined machines for maintaining smallholding and we also drive a relatively high emissions petrol car.

mmmm chainsaw.

And how are the people essentially forced out of BMWs and Mercs into M3's enjoying the ownership experience so far? I am interested in how people who have no real interest in Teslas and ev's get on day to day with an M3?

 

[LongRanger]

the folks I know personally are all pretty blown away TBH. It helps we are in the energy industry and driving towards zero carbon "UK Plc" objectives both personally and as a business. I'd say as a group we are fairly "eyes open" to the benefits of EV. I did it to reduce personal CO2 total, both locally in the beautiful place we live and round the motorway network, plus it gives me insight into the completely opposite end of the electricity network that I work in.

I'd say most folks are going for LR but there's a fair few P's in there too. I have also had feedback that the ride comfort for the LR has really surprised people in a good way, same experience as I've had.

The word is starting to spread. I really do hope the reliability experience holds up as even though many Audis, BMWs and Mercs have problems, they aren't perceived as unreliable in the fleet world so folks hold them up as beacons for the model 3 to match.