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Atkins welcomed the £37m of funding the Government announced earlier this year to help build a suitable infrastructure. That splits into £13.5m for domestic charge points with the Government contributing 75% of the cost of a home charge point up to £1000, £11m for local authority on-street or rapid charge points, £3m for public sector points and £9m for charging points to be installed at railway stations. The deadline for the latter two expires on 30 April, although Atkins predicted that if the full funding wasn't taken, it would hopefully be opened up for a second round of applications. The on-street and residential funding is open-ended deadline-wise. "Now employees can get 75% of the funding for a home charge point," he says.
"The new funding will definitely help the public infrastructure and now anyone can apply," he adds, pointing out that the previous Plugged-in Places scheme funding meant certain geographic hotspots dominated the grants and people outside of those areas weren't able to obtain help. "They've put so much funding behind it that I'd be surprised if there isn't a huge uptake," he adds.
Recent changes to benefit-in-kind were also conservatively welcomed by Atkins, but he felt they could have gone further. Rather than reverting to 13% BIK in April 2015, there will now be discounted BIK for low-emission vehicles until at least April 2020. "It's good there has been some movement. Personally I would have liked to see it kept at zero," he says. "It's a view shared across the industry but ultimately that can help keep the industry moving and at least there is still support there."
Atkins was also keen to point out other less obvious benefits of electric cars. Thanks to the reduced number of moving parts, breakdowns are less likely, and service, maintenance and repair costs are lower, while for larger operations, a small number of electric vehicles can spread the risk if they have elements of the business that need to keep moving.
A reliance on petrol or diesel has the potential to cause logistical problems if there were ever a fuel shortage, and having the back-up of electric power could be a useful alternative.
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