Corporates plug in for EV fleet adapter

An ambitious group of organisations with thousands of vehicles in their fleets, including Tesco, NatWest Group, LeasePlan UK, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and the Environment Agency, have come together to launch EVzero, an industry action group dedicated to accelerating the deployment of electrified fleets.

EVzero enables ambitious leaders to help each other take the next steps forward for their fleet transition, by tackling a critical pinch point in charging infrastructure that is hindering successful EV deployments.

Participants will focus on working together to overcome this costly and risky challenge and develop innovative solutions based around collaborative demand in asset availability, utilisation, finance, and efficiency.

Through the EVzero programme, organisations will:

• Develop a suitable charging infrastructure network to help turn EV strategy into actions
• Reduce risks and costs of deployment by co-developing innovative solutions built through collaborative demand
• Gain access to knowledge, technical support, and data from peers and market experts to ensure success
• Overcome critical challenges that are difficult to resolve alone and deliver real progress that supports ESG performance.

By pooling together immense experience and resources, this powerful group of leaders may finally shake up the EV market enough to crack the code towards a fully net zero future.

Alfonzo Martinez, managing director, LeasePlan UK, commented: “Making the switch to EVs can feel like a daunting task for businesses and public sector bodies, but with the right support and preparation in place it can be a positive and straight-forward experience. We’re delighted to put our experience of working with organisations of all sizes to ease the transition to good use as part of EVzero group. Together we’re committed to driving real, tangible change.”

Jacqueline Carrington-Fallow, design manager, NatWest Group, commented: “Developing a suitable charging infrastructure is key to the successful transition to electric vehicles for many organisations’ commercial operations. We are pleased to be working with like-minded organisations to address shared problems and come up with solutions that will help to accelerate the decarbonisation and electrification of our fleet vehicles.”

Tim Golding, UK property director, Tesco, commented: “We’re delighted to be collaborating with our Innovation Gateway EVzero Action Group partners – an initiative that will help its diverse membership identify and overcome the collective challenges they and we face.”

Matt Pumfrey, CEO, EVzero by Innovation Gateway, commented: “Innovation Gateway has a heritage in collaboration and innovation identification, and we are bringing our framework to support the deployment of tangible EV projects. By doing this together, we will reduce risks and costs and develop solutions based around the collective demand of the world’s most ambitious organisations.”

Members’ fleets and aims:

NatWest Group | 300 fleet vehicles, 20 mobile branch vans. Committed to installing at least 600 EV chargers across its locations in the UK and Republic of Ireland by 2030, and to switching all company cars to electric models by 2025.

Tesco | 5,500+ vehicle fleet, 30 electric delivery vans, 2,400 customer charging points across 600 stores. Committed to switching its delivery fleet to fully electric by 2028 as part of a commitment to reach net zero by 2035.

LeasePlan UK | 1.8m cars. Fleet investment estimated at £40bn in UK by 2030.

Environment Agency, as part of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Group Fleet Services | 5,000+ vehicle fleet (1,500 vans, 3,500 company cars)