Going green with Person Centred Software
When your petrol car starts making some funny noises and your company launch our EV salary sacrifice scheme, you know it’s time to go green. The good news is that our scheme helps you save up to 40% on your new EV, plus you’ll have everything you need to hit the road with insurance, breakdown, maintenance, tyres and servicing in the package.
Dave Collins, at Person Centred Software, got his new EV a year ago when his petrol car was on the way out, and he made the decision to go electric. Keep reading to see how he has found his Volkswagen ID.3.
"It’s worth it just for peace of mind alone."
Dave: Originally, I was looking at an MG4 but I can be a bit impatient and I was told there was stock in the country of the ID.3’s so I could get it quite quickly.
I was offered a choice of grey or white so I went for it. And it’s great, I love it!
Elise: Well happy first anniversary to your car then! How do you find driving it?
D: It’s so comfortable, the arm-rest really gives the seats the edge over many other EVs I’ve been in. The gears are also in a really easy position, just right of the steering wheel, so it makes for a seamless drive. I especially love when the car is rolling and you can just flip between drive and reverse so easily.
E: It’s such a nice car isn’t it?
D: Yeah, especially as I came from a 2007 VW Golf that had all sorts wrong with it. It had so many underlying problems and ended up costing me a small fortune.
When this scheme came about, I knew I needed a car quickly as I couldn’t keep putting money into the Golf.
E: Well I’m glad we were able to get you into something more reliable.
D: Now I have the same amount of money coming out of my paycheck every month, for a great car. It’s worth it just for peace of mind alone.
"The ID.3 worked out substantially cheaper."
E: And what drew you towards our salary sacrifice scheme in particular?
D: I worked out how much I was spending on the Golf a month, then what the ID.3 would cost and the ID.3 was only going to cost £30 more. I thought, wow that’s good!
So I worked out everything, servicing, MOT, repairs, insurance, fuel etc and the ID.3 worked out substantially cheaper.
E: Talking of fuel, how do you charge your car? At home or with Electroverse on the public network?
D: So we’re lucky at Person Centred Software because we have a car park here with free charging points, it's council run. I pay £11 to park from 8-6.30 and it’s guaranteed that every day for free charging.
E: Wow that’s amazing. More councils should implement that! I presume that’s your main source of charging then?
D: Yep, there’s permit bays where I live so a home charger wasn’t an option. But I did get an Electroverse card when signing up to the scheme which came with 4,000 miles of free charging.
"if you’re going to have to stop anyway to rest, why not charge?"
E: So were there any worries you had before getting an EV?
D: Only the charging. I live in Guilford and I drive to Kent regularly to pick up my son, so it’s a 150 mile round trip. It’s quite a hilly drive so the range does get hit by it.
I rented an EV for the day before committing, to test that drive out, and there’s so many charging points along the way. So all the worries were… Well none really!
It’s different having an EV and it takes time to adapt, but as long as your journey is planned out it’s all good. But, if you’re not planning rest stops on a long drive anyway you’re a bit silly. So if you’re going to have to stop anyway to rest, why not charge?
E: I agree, I understand why charging an EV is scary for some, but it just takes some getting used to.
D: The joy of this as well is I know I can come out of work and my car is full. It’s so easy.
E: And when you have charged on the public network, how has that experience been?
D: Really good. I had one instance where one didn’t work but within 5 minutes of reporting it, it’d been fixed! The next day it wasn’t working again… but they got it working up again so quickly. So on the whole great, considering that’s one time over a year.
E: So I know you said you were looking at other cars before your ID.3, what were your must-haves for your EV?
D: Reasonable range for the price, so it was a range price balance really. Then Android Auto, so I could get integrated maps and Spotify, cruise control and that was all really. As long as I could drive a long distance, stay warm and listen to my music in a reliable car.
Since having the car though, I’ve loved the automatic emergency braking. It has kicked in a few times, especially when coming out of parking spaces. You think you’ve got enough room but the car goes “You haven’t, sorry!”.
E: It’s so clever isn’t it? Such a great safety feature. Clearly you love the car, but how has your experience been with Octopus Electric Vehicles as a whole?
D: It’s been good. With your guys help I was able to get into a car so much quicker. I’ve had a couple of confusing conversations after the car got hit and needed to go into repairs. But, I think that was all down to everything happening so quickly and so many moving parts.
I rang the driverline in the morning, and by 4pm I had a replacement car sent out to me!
E: Wow super speedy.
D: Delivery for my ID.3 was great and I was kept updated with what was going on for the whole process. Plus, I had three discounts applied to my car so that was pretty great.
Person Centred Software are not only helping their team save the planet, but their wallets too with our salary sacrifice scheme. The team have access to all the latest EVs on the market, and they’ve got free charging at their work, nice. Now Dave and his son can travel in style.
Get chatting to a member of our team today to find out how easy it is to supercharge your benefits package. If you’re an employee, why not convince your company so you can get yourself behind the wheel of an EV.
