Big business set to drive EV infrastructure demand

Electric vehicle (EV) demand, and therefore demand for the infrastructure to support them, has so far been fairly muted, as is often the case with new technologies, with few early adopters being able to afford the steep prices compared with their combustion fuelled competitors.

However this is likely to change rapidly following big businesses committing to migrate their fleets of vehicles to become fully electric by 2030.

Businesses adopting EV

Tarmac has joined a growing list of companies committing to doing just that, with a statement earlier this month saying that: “Tarmac has committed to upgrading its 2,000-strong fleet of corporate cars and vans to EVs by 2030, as well as installing EV charging points and infrastructure in key business locations across the country.”

BT’s Openreach has also committed to transforming their fleet of more than 27,000 commercial vehicles, with a statement on their website saying that: “We aim to have more than a third of our fleet fully migrated to EVs by the mid-2020s.”

And with Rentokil Initial, and the energy supplier OVO also committing to transform their fleets to EV, it looks like the EV revolution is taking off for big business.

Public catching-on

It looks like the public are gradually coming around to EVs too, with the search term ‘Electric Vehicle’ reaching the category of ‘Rising’ on Google since the beginning of this year, which Google explains indicates “... the biggest increase in search frequency”. So there’s just the cost issue for consumers to overcome now.

And this cost issue could be overcome relatively quickly. With the highly anticipated “Battery Day” expected to be revealed by Tesla’s Elon Musk in September, where Mr Musk is expected to announce massive advances in the reduction of battery size, huge improvements in battery capacity, and a landmark reduction in battery price, which, if the hype is to be believed, will remove the three main barriers to EV adoption.

Whether or not EVs become instantly more affordable for consumers or not, there is clearly an appetite for businesses to cut emissions through the roll-out of EVs, so the infrastructure will need to be in place to service this.

So far we have seen a growing trend of planning applications, approvals and contracts being awarded for this infrastructure, but with increased demand being created by big business, and potentially consumers, this is expected to grow exponentially to meet demand.

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