“AN EV ISN’T MUCH GOOD TO A ROAD WARRIOR”

Imagine a company car road warrior doing 500 miles a day. Won’t they be hamstrung if they have to stop for an hour or more to charge up? Well, probably not. The days are largely gone when reps aggressively pounded the outside lane doing galactic mileages. Health and safety policies restrict their seat time, and anyway, more meetings are online now, and it’ll stay that way. And that all means average annual mileage is falling.

Paul Holland is the boss of Allstar, which provides fuel cards to company drivers. He says: “We have the data to confirm that EV use is surging. With some adaptations to the way they work, companies have been able to use EVs in heavy use situations.” And that includes car drivers on long trips, he adds.

It’s true that in going beyond the range of their car after charging overnight at home, a company driver would have to take a few minutes on a map or app finding a rapid charger en route. But I imagine that’s a pretty small price in return for their spectacular BIK tax saving.

Besides, if it is a bit awkward now, it’s getting better fast. In choosing a company car, remember you’ll have it for the next three years. Motorway charge hubs are sprouting like a rash. Quick charging life for CCS socket drivers is quickly approaching the convenience Tesla folk have known for years.

If you’re not on open motorways, you might do a day on one charge anyway. Check your trip computer average speed. If it’s, say, 35mph, then eight hours is only 280 miles covered.