Welcome to the electric 20s...
By Fiona Howarth, Chief Executive of Octopus Electric Vehicles
It is the end of an era - as we say goodbye to another fantastic decade, we look forward to the incredible one to come.
And the electric revolution is right at our heels.
We, here at Octopus Electric Vehicles, are hugely excited for the new roaring twenties. In the 1920’s we saw a huge transport revolution. Alongside huge tech advancements such as telephones - our roads went from horse-drawn carriages to motorcars.
And now - 100 years on - it is the decade that our roads will become clean and green, with cars full of amazing tech like autopilot, and acceleration that is so fast you can’t help but grin.
In 2019, we saw huge progress:
-UK EV registrations surged (up 144% vs. 2018) as the Tesla Model 3 reached our shores… the car that takes all Elon’s learnings and can beat sports cars away from traffic lights, while having a safety rating and world class handling that is second to none
-EV drivers optimised their charging with products like the Ohme cable to unlock driving costs of just 1p / mile (vs. 10p+ on traditional cars) - and even got paid to charge up on the AgileOctopus tariff when there was surplus wind in the energy system (and then thanked for it by the energy industry leaders)
-The number of public EV charge points overtook petrol stations in the UK
In 2020, there’s a lot to look forward to:
-Increasing flow of amazing EVs into the UK from the VW ID3, the MG ZS EV, Hyundai Ioniq and Mercedes EQC.
-The government’s fantastic reduced Benefit in Kind (BiK) rate for EVs of 0% from April - enabling drivers to save 30-60% on their car costs by paying out of their gross salary with a salary sacrifice scheme.
-EV drivers are being thanked for spreading the word- with £50 each way for the referer and the new EV driver if they lease via Octopus
->100 EV drivers in South East & East of England will be saving money while demonstrating new grid tech using Wallbox’s market-leading Vehicle-to-Grid chargers on the Octopus Powerloop project
And beyond 2020?
The change will happen quicker than most people can imagine - let’s see if the traditional car manufacturers will be able to keep up.
Here at Octopus we are starting to see our vision come to life…
Our passionate team are working around the clock to make it easy for drivers to switch to electric - from great EV leasing offers, to smart charging solutions and green energy supply.
This year alone our work has equated to planting over a quarter of a million fully grown trees. This is like flying from Heathrow to LA 201 times, and back! We have spoken to over 12,000 people, covering events across the UK and putting the concept of EV in front of 2.6million people with our campaigns.
We’d like to thank you for being at the forefront of the transition to a cleaner, greener and frankly more fun driving future…
If you have any questions or think we might be able to help you - please do give us a call on 020 3870 3892 or email us on hello@octopusev.com.
We’d like to thank you for being at the forefront of the transition to a cleaner, greener and frankly, more fun driving future…
