Evotech starts its move to electric vehicles

On World Clean Air Day 2020, Evotech’s Consulting Engineer, Richard Watts pledged to reduce his carbon footprint by swopping his diesel Audi for an electric vehicle, and just before Christmas, his Tesla Model 3 arrived. 

Electric vehicles have cheaper running costs than petrol-powered vehicles, in fact Tesla claims that the cost of electricity is up to seven times lower than that of petrol. The Tesla Model 3 Standard Range can cover up to 254 miles on one charge and can be fully charged overnight using a 7kW Type 2 home charger which Richard had fitted in 2020 in readiness. 

Taking advantage of the Government’s Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) that provides a 75% contribution towards the cost of one charge point and its installation (capped at £350 inc VAT), Richard found the application process straight forward. He used his utility provider, Octopus, who are a scheme provider, and they took care of the grant application for him. 

His utility provider asked him to provide photos and details of where the charge point was to be located and details of the cable run between the incoming electricity meter and the charge point location. They also asked if there was WiFi within range of the proposed charging point, which there was, however, WiFi range extenders could have been used, if not. It took Richard around two months from placing the order until installation, so if you are considering making the change, do bear this in mind.  

Richard says: “I love my new car, it’s super quiet, has great acceleration and is very cheap to run. I like to think that I’m doing my bit to reduce carbon emissions so that my children can enjoy cleaner air and all the benefits of a reduction in climate change, and to be honest I don’t feel at all hard done by.”  

Evotech will continue to replace petrol and diesel run company vehicles with electric as individual contracts come up for renewal, in a bid to have an all-electric fleet by 2025. 

Auto Express has recently published its top ten electric car picks for 2021.