To achieve Greater Manchester's net zero and air quality goals, we need more electric vehicles on our roads and the charging infrastructure to support them.
So, we're calling on businesses to help.
EVs can save your business and employees money while reducing your impact on the planet.
Show your business is leading the charge and accelerate your EV journey today.
While EVs are a great low-emission transport solution, we all know the best way to protect the planet is to leave your car at home, especially for short journeys.
Greater Manchester is revolutionising public transport across the region by creating the Bee Network, a world-class public transport system under local control. The Bee Network will make it easier to get around by bus, tram, train and bike providing easy-to-use, reliable and sustainable travel with simple low fares and flexible tickets.
The Bee Network will be rolled out across Greater Manchester from September 2023 and will provide a truly low-carbon solution for commuters and businesses. Where possible, businesses should consider promoting the use of public transport and take up of the Bee Network.
Bee Net Zero partner Transport for Greater Manchester has created a business portal which acts as a one-stop shop for travel advice and resources to encourage and enable sustainable travel.
We understand that public transport isn't a viable option for a lot of businesses across Greater Manchester, especially for those in harder-to-reach areas. Therefore, Bee Net Zero partners have come together to help you understand the transition to Electric Vehicles.
40% of Greater Manchester's CO2 emissions come from road transport. To help reduce this, we need to encourage the take up of electric cars across the region.
One of the biggest concerns about switching to EVs is the availability of chargers, which is where Greater Manchester's businesses can step up. By installing on-site chargers your business and employees can easily transition to electric vehicles, and you could even support your local community.
With the Government phasing out sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles and offering grants and incentives for EV take-up, there’s never been a better time for Greater Manchester businesses to switch.
This July, Electric vehicles (EVs) accounted for more than one-third of UK car registrations with one battery electric cars registered every minute. Investing in EV infrastructure and vehicles now will help both your business and your employees stay one step ahead of the change and beat demand.
The Bee Net Zero partnership aims to simplify the road to EV by signposting you to guides, advice and the honest opinions of our board members.
Understand the complexities of EV chargers to ensure you get the correct charger for your business needs, and help you find a trusted installer.
Help you to understand the ins and outs of electrifying your organisation's fleet in a way that best suits your sector and needs.
Understand green finance solutions, government grants and tax incentives that make the business case for switching to electric vehicles.
Understanding the local charging network and how your business can contribute
Help you to implement salary sacrifice schemes that will support employees adopt EVs in an affordable way and decarbonise their commute.
Giving you honest opinions and impartial advice from across the Bee Net Zero partnership to ensure the switch to EVs is right for your organisation and its people.
Whether you're switching your fleet to electric vehicles or installing charger to support employees, embracing EVs can have significant advantages for your business.
You'll look proactive and forward thinking. You'll have infrastructure installed before demand gets too high. You'll reduce your carbon footprint. You'll look more attractive to prospective talent. And you'll save money.
Cost per mile is normally half that of diesel for a similar vehicle. It can work out as low as 5p per mile to run an EV.
Most electric cars and vans are zero-rated for Vehicle Excise Duty (what used to be called ‘road tax’)
Electric vehicles are more reliable and cheaper to maintain, you can save up to 25% on garage bills.
The government will give £350 per socket to install charging points with a Workplace or Home Charging Grant.
Find trusted EV charge point installers, sustainable transport providers and more on Green Economy's Marketplace to help make your organisation's transition to net zero as easy as possible. Green Economy's Online Marketplace brings together local and national providers to give you the confidence to invest in green tech.
Bee Net Zero Partner Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has created a list of upcoming public EV charging installations and a map of current EV chargers around the region to help your organisation and employees find public charge points
EV infrastructure grant for staff and fleets
Designed specifically for SMEs, the EV infrastructure grant helps to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure in commercial car parks. The grant covers up to 75% of the cost of installing the infrastructure needed to install and operate charge points now and in the future.
Workplace Charging Scheme
The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) is a voucher scheme that provides support towards the up-front costs of the purchase and installation of electric vehicle chargepoints for eligible businesses, charities and public sector organisations.
Benefit in kind tax breaks
If your businesses provides company cars or fuel for your employees’ private use, you’ll need to work out the taxable value and report this to HMRC. The benefit in kind (BIK) tax bands (also known as company car tax) is based on the CO2 emissions of the vehicle, so the lower the CO2 emissions, the less tax they’ll need to pay. This means EVs pay much less.
Vehicle Excise Duty (VED)
Fully electric cars and vans are currently exempt from paying Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) also known as road tax. As well as this, fully electric cars are exempt from the £40,000 rule, which sees owners of more expensive cars pay an extra amount each year.
From online tools to salary sacrifice schemes, there are many support services out there that can help your organisation and people to make the switch to EVs as simple as possible. In these articles, we've tried to round up all available options to help you compare the best rental options, fleet management and charge point installers among other things to support your business at all stages on the journey to EV.
If you know of any options we've missed out of the below blogs, please contact us and we'll be sure to research it and add it to our listings if we believe it to be a viable option.
EV Calculators and Tools
Discover the online tools that can help you to understand the cost-saving tools to ensure you can demonstrate real savings and, know which makes and models will give you the best value for money.
Salary Sacrifice Schemes
Here are some of the EV salary sacrifice schemes available to organisations across Greater Manchester. With some specific to smaller businesses and some offering vans and heavy-duty vehicles rather than just cars, there’s a salary sacrifice scheme to suit all organisations and all needs.
Electric Car and Van Subscription Services
For many businesses an individual’s car subscription services can provide a gateway to electric car ownership, giving drivers the chance to live with the vehicle for a short time before making a big financial commitment. Here are some of the options available to Greater Manchester businesses.
End-to-End EV Solutions
With many elements to consider in the switch to EVs such as charging infrastructure, finance and the purchase of vehicles, it’s often easier to find one trusted organisation that can handle all elements. Here are some of the end-to-end EV solution providers available to Greater Manchester organisations to support the transition to electric vehicles.
EV Charging
In order to electrify, your business will need to procure EV charge point technology to be installed at your worksites, at the homes of your drivers, or both. Green Economy advisors have listed 5 things you need to know about EV charging before you make the investment.
Electricity North West
Learn more about how Bee Net Zero partner Electricity North West supported and enabled its employees to transition to electric vehicles and sustainable transport.
Green Economy
Green Economy spoke to Greater Manchester based businesses that have undergone fleet electrification. Read Secure Contracting, University of Salford, and Stagecoach's advice on going electric.
EVC
EVC Group, based in Bury, has launched a new EV charge point service, increased headcount by three and gained sales worth £200k, following support from Green Economy.
Green Economy's Marketplace
Green Economy's directory of installers, suppliers and solution providers can help your organisation to make an informed decision when sourcing local suppliers for electric vehicles and infrastructure.
ZapMap's Journey Cost Calculator
Use the Journey Cost Calculator to calculate the cost of a journey and discover the savings you could enjoy by switching from a petrol or diesel car to an electric vehicle (EV).
Bee Net Zero's Green Finance Guide
Access to finance is one of the biggest barriers that prevents Greater Manchester businesses from adopting green technologies. This guide brings together all available grants and loans that can help businesses to take up EVs.
Joosup
Joosup is an EV charger sharing and community charging app exclusively for electric vehicle owners. With 400,000 privately owned off-street charge-points in existence, Joosup allows us to share charge points with likeminded EV drivers and let you earn extra money.
Zapmap
Search for EV charging points, plan journeys and pay for charging with Zapmap. With the widest choice of charging options in the UK, Zapmap provides peace of mind when out and about in your EV.
WhenToPlugIn
The National Grid's WhenToPlugIn app tells you the best times of day to ‘plug in’, so you can get the cleanest energy. Changing routines to avoid peak strains on the grid when fossil energy may kick-in is essential to ensuring your EV reduces your carbon footprint.
Plugshare
If you’re travelling abroad PlugShare could be essential. The EV app guides users to public charging locations around the world with over 533,000 charging stations across all the major networks across the globe.
