Vodafone UK has outlined the measures it has taken in pursuit of its 2027 zero-emission fleet target – and is now planning to go even further.
The communications company explained how its electrification strategy in pursuit of the target – three years ahead of the UK Government’s ban on new petrol and diesel car sales – has already paid dividends with its 1,355-strong car and van fleet, and how it is now looking at further acceleration.
Speaking on a webinar held by the company’s fleet management partner Arval UK, Vodafone UK property and fleet contract manager Craig Login said: “We have been quite aggressively pursuing an electrification strategy for the fleet over the last two years, driven both by demands for drivers for zero emissions options and an overall company objective to meet this target.
“We are now in a position where 98% of the cars ordered by us in 2020 were either EVs or plug-in hybrids, and around two-thirds (66%) of the car fleet is now electric already.
“This is a positive development but we want to move things even faster if possible. Arval UK have been fundamental to our electrification process so far and we have now asked them to examine ways that they can move people out of our remaining petrol and diesel cars even faster, potentially before their replacement vehicle is due, and this would accelerate the process further.”
Login added that a key part of the strategy had been a switch to a whole-life cost model for choice lists, as recommended by Arval, replacing a previous method of basing them on leasing costs.
He said: “Without moving to whole-life costs, it would have been impossible to make a financial argument for electrification. However, using this more accurate and advanced kind of calculation, we can see that overall costs for EVs and PHEVs are very similar, if not better than their internal combustion engine counterparts.”
