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If you work a trade or offer a special service to the public, you’ll know how important it is to have the right equipment for the job. However, buying and outfitting an entire vehicle yourself can be time-consuming and painstaking work – not to mention expensive! Instead, it’s much easier to have a specialist help with a vehicle conversion.

That might be common knowledge, but did you also know you can actually lease a vehicle and still get it converted to aid your trade?

In this post, we spotlight some of the vehicle conversions offered by our specialist vehicle leasing services.

1. Wheelchair accessible vehicles

Image credit: WAVL

Over at our specialist wheelchair accessible vehicle leasing website WAVL  we’ve partnered with several of the UK’s leading specialists in vehicle conversions to offer wheelchair accessible minibuses, without the associated costs of up-front purchase and conversion.

We have a number of different options on offer, including the Renault Trafic conversion pictured above. Some of the accessible vehicle features we can offer include lifts (under-floor or inboard), ramps and turny seats, making it easier for passengers to get in and out of the vehicle so you can take them safely and happily to their destination.

Find out more about leasing a WAV here.

2. Cherry pickers

Image credit: CPL

Used in trades where workers need to reach several meters higher than they could with a simple ladder, cherry pickers can help everyone from firefighters to window cleaners, farmers, roofers and tree surgeons to do what they do with the utmost care and safety.

The vehicle above is a classic example of a specialist fleet vehicle conversion that we offer here at WVL. It’s a converted Renault Master van with a KL26 lift platform that reaches a working height of 11.8 metres, can safely carry up to 120kg, and can reach out from the vehicle by up to 6.5m.

Talk to our specialist vehicle leasing team about leasing a cherry picker.

3. Glazing vans

If you work in the window trade, you’ll need a vehicle capable of safely transporting sheets of glass for fitting into people’s homes and businesses alike. Our vehicle conversions team are able to lease you a van of your choice fitted out with either a full length external carrying rack, or a more specialised internal glass carrying setup. Either way, you’ll be well set to offer glazing services to your local area – without needing to worry about paying a large up-front fee for both vehicle and the full conversion.

4. Custom van interiors

Glazing vans aren’t the only bespoke van interiors we’re able to offer. With a leasing arrangement through our vehicle conversions team, we can provide you with a van to your size and spec required, with professionally fitted internal racking and accessories that are essential to your business.

This can even include accessories that require electrics, such as towbars. Simply specify these up-front, so we can work with the manufacturer to ensure the vehicle’s warranty is not invalidated.

5. Van roof fittings

Whether roof bars or roof racks, we are also able to provide bespoke vans to your spec, fitted with exactly the connections that make for the safe transport of the items essential for your trade or service.

6. Chiller vans

Bespoke vans don’t get much more specialist than chiller or freezer conversions, and we offer a range as part of our specialist fleet vehicle conversions service, including:

• Small vans like the Vauxhall Combo and Ford Transit, or the Ford Transit Connect and Citroen Berlingo
• Medium-size bespoke vans like the Vauxhall Vivaro and the Renault Trafic
• Larger vans like the Vauxhall Movano, larger Ford Transits and the Mercedes Benz Sprinter.

Whatever size and spec you need, these bespoke cold-storage vans can keep food chilled from -18 to +5 degrees centigrade and include the ability to plug the van into the mains for overnight storage.

Even more specialist vehicle conversions!

Other examples of vehicle conversions we offer include:

Sign writing and vehicle wrapping

To add an extra professional touch and help raise your brand profile wherever you go. Can be offered on both bespoke car hire and bespoke vans.

Road safety maintenance vehicles

Including chevrons and roof beacons.

Pick-up canopies

From basic to lockable, colour coded and windows.

Deadlocks

To keep your prized business vehicle and the property within it extra secure.

Van steps

To help with getting in and out of high-sided bespoke vans.

Rear bumper protection

To protect your vehicle and staff against unexpected rear collisions.

Looking for specialist vehicle conversions? We can help

Our specialist vehicle leasing services can save you time and money while getting you exactly the bespoke vans or bespoke car hire arrangements you need to serve your customers.

To learn more, get in touch with our specialist vehicle leasing team today!

More recent posts

• The WVL Leasing Difference
• Ten Truths About Business Vehicle Leasing
• EVs for Long Drives: Better Than You Think!
• Why Open Leasing is the Perfect Stopgap
• Can Car Salary Sacrifice Work for Your Employees?

With just over two years until the EU’s aggressive targets for fleet emission reduction targets come into play, business fleets of all sizes are in the process of exploring the best options for electrifying their fleet.

But are electric cars really greener? And if so, just how much difference might going green make to your fleet? Here, we answer those questions.

Are electric cars better for the environment?

First off, we’ll look at CO2 output.

Just a visit to Carbon Counter shows at a simple glance just how environmentally friendly electric cars are compared to petrol and diesel vehicles.

To illustrate that point, we’ve pulled out CO2 output for four different kinds of vehicles plotted on the Carbon Counter graph…

The table above shows clearly how much lower the CO2 output of the fully-electric model is versus even the hybrid model, with the petrol model more than double and the diesel alternative being almost three times as polluting.

However, if that were all there was to it, this would be a particularly short post! Outside of fumes there are a number of other factors to consider before you can understand just how environmentally friendly EV cars are…

The source of electric fuel

The next factor that influences just how green electric vehicles are is the origins of their fuel.

By ‘fuel,’ of course, we mean electricity, so a good place to start there is the National Grid. According to their official website, almost half (43%) of Britain’s current energy is renewable. There’s also the fact that the carbon footprint of our energy sector is decreasing in size faster than anywhere else in the world.

These are both incredibly promising facts, especially for current or prospective EV owners concerned with climate change, as well as for business fleets concerned with lowering their emissions.

That being said, answering the question ‘are electric cars really greener’ doesn’t stop there…

Are electric cars really greener on the manufacturing side?

So far EVs are two-for-two when it comes to being undeniably greener. Things are less clear cut, however, when you look at EV manufacturing.

This can be put down to the environmental costs of mining materials that go into typical EV lithium batteries.

Take lithium itself, for example. Mining it requires extensive amounts of water. In fact, because of this, EV production on the whole is around 50% more water intensive than non-EV vehicle production. However, the lithium for EV batteries found in hot countries like Argentina, Australia, Chile and Bolivia, which have massive water shortages – meaning EV production actually detracts from things like crop irrigation in those areas.

Added to that, there is also predicted to be a shortage of lithium by 2030, meaning EV production could be posed with some significant problems, right around the time petrol cars are being phased out.

Lithium itself isn’t the only issue, either. EV batteries are also full of cobalt, which carries its own mining challenges from both an environmental and ethical perspective. These include:

Mining the world’s main source of cobalt in The Congo can cause the metal substance to mix with river water, potentially damaging the health of people in nearby communities.

Many of the mines sourcing this cobalt are unregulated ones where the workers (typically small children) use hand-based ‘artisanal’ methods – a similarly dangerous and health-hazardous task.

Automotive companies are taking steps to address both of these issues, with artisanal mines in particular being closed down in favour of reputable methods of cobalt mining. However, with supplies of the metal not limitless, it will take more than refined mining methods for EV production to become environmentally sustainable at a larger scale.

The challenges behind EV battery recycling

What happens to used EV batteries at the end of their lifecycle?

The last consideration to factor in when gauging Just how environmentally friendly electric cars are is the measures being put in place to recycle and reuse spent batteries.

According to a University of Warwick study referenced in City A.M., there will be more than 339,000 tonnes of lithium batteries at the end of their lifecycle come 2035. When you consider that 2035 is also when hybrid car manufacture will end on UK shores, this will clearly be the time by which a highly efficient method of recycling old lithium batteries en masse needs to have been rolled out.

That will mean much investment being made by automotive companies, along with deep-dive research being performed into the most economical way for governments or private companies to source these materials.

There’s work to be done – but EVs are the future

On the whole, there’s little argument against the idea that electric cars are better for the environment. When it comes to the extent of the improvement, however, the devil will be in the details – and there’s more than a decade for automotive manufacturers to work those out.

In the here and now, business fleets need to know one thing: electric cars really are greener, and can certainly help you lower your fleet emissions to meet EU targets – and help you avoid hefty financial sanctions.

So, if you’re looking to go green in the coming years, get in touch with our team – they’ll help track down the right electric vehicle, whether it’s a single electric car for a member of your team, or a fleet of EVs for a larger electric rollout.

More recent posts

• Electricity Price Hike: Why EVs are Still the Smart Choice 
• EVs for Long Drives: Better Than You Think!
• What You Need to Know About Charging Electric Vehicles
• Is an EV Really Cheaper To Run?
• Electric, Petrol, Diesel and Hybrid Vehicles: Benefits & Drawbacks

The recent sharp rises in energy prices had threatened to bring electric car charging costs closer than ever to the price of petrol and diesel refuelling.

However, this worry was somewhat alleviated when the government announced its Energy Price Guarantee, capping energy prices at 34p per kilowatt hour (34p/kWh) – rather than doubling to the previously announced figure of 52p/kWh.

Nonetheless, the cost of EV home charging is likely to increase by as much as 20%  this winter – while already, public electric car charging stations cost up to 42% more now than they did just four months ago.

What does that mean for electric car running costs?

Fleet News reports that the typical charging cost of electric cars at home will go from around £7 for each 100 miles of charge added to the battery, to £8.50. That’s based on a vehicle that travels around four miles per kWh.

When you consider that the average range of EVs is now reported to be around 260 miles, that means a total 0-100% charge cost of around £22. That’s significantly cheaper than the RAC Foundation places the average cost of filling up a petrol (£89.91) or diesel (£99.24) tank at the time of writing.

Of course, while the prices for charging at-home (or indeed, at your fleet’s home depot) are more affordable, fleet drivers – particularly ones who make frequent long journeys – are more likely than your average commuter to use roadside public charging networks. And those networks are experiencing sharp increases.

The most extreme example of these price hikes comes from charge network provider Osprey, which recently increased its prices by 35% from 66p/kWh to an unheard-of £1/kWh in response to the energy crisis.

While Osprey may be an outlier, it’s clear that at-home charging will be by far the most cost-effective way to charge an EV for the foreseeable future. Business fleets should therefore make smart use of tools like Zap-Map by planning ahead on long journeys to locate and use the most cost-effective charge points, helping to lower fuel expenditure on a consistent basis.

The expenses impact on fleets and fleet drivers

One thing the government has still to address is the advisory electricity rate (AER), which is the pence-per-mile (ppm) rate that the government recommends fleets use to reimburse drivers for charging costs of electric cars used for business.

Fleet News reports that drivers whose vehicle manages three miles per kWh are likely to pay around 11ppm – six pence more for each mile travelled than the government’s sanctioned amount.

Understandably, being able to claim back less than half of their business fuel expenses is likely to impact drivers negatively, and could cause some resentment. It’s a cost that could run into hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds across a working year.

If you run a business fleet, one answer to appease drivers could be to set your own reimbursement rate more in line with current energy prices – something the majority of fleet owners feel should be around 15ppm.

However, as EV charging specialist Mina warns, fleets should do this with caution, and be willing to substantiate to HMRC that you’re paying the actual cost of the electricity being used. Get this wrong and you’ll at the very least incur benefit in kind charges on the reimbursement, but could even end up with the taxman taking a closer look at your business.

Making electric car charging costs more manageable

For the majority of lease hires and company car drivers, home charging will be the main method of filling up the battery to get from A to B. Thankfully, there are certain energy tariffs that can help them get the most for their money.

With a compatible EV charger installed at your property (something that renters, flat owners and landlords can get a significant discount on), an EV tariff could help you make a quite sizeable saving when charging your electric vehicle between certain times – most notably overnight.

Indeed, Fleet News suggests that the Intelligent tariff from Octopus Energy, which has an off-peak rate of 7.5p/kWh, could lead to a 100-mile charge cost of just £1.80. Considering the average UK driver travels around 6,800 miles annually, that makes for a charging cost as low as £127.50, based on a vehicle travelling at least four miles per kWh. That’s four times less than the new 34p/kWh price cap.

Whichever way you look at it, then, even with the electricity price hike, EVs are still the smart choice when it comes to business fleets saving fuel money.

Need a new EV on lease hire?

You’re in the right place. Even in a tricky climate for vehicle availability, our team of industry experts have the means to find you an electric vehicle that will fit your needs, ensuring you can enjoy the benefits of lower electric car running costs vs petrol and diesel vehicles.

To find out more about EVs check out the blogs below. To see how we can help you find a suitable EV, take a look at our post ‘The WVL Leasing Difference’ or get in touch with us to find out more.

More recent posts

•   The WVL Leasing Difference
•   What Does Current Vehicle Availability Look Like?
•   EVs for Long Drives: Better Than You Think!
•   What You Need to Know About Charging Electric Vehicles
•   Is an EV Really Cheaper To Run?
• Electric, Petrol, Diesel and Hybrid Vehicles: Benefits & Drawbacks

One of the most common questions we get asked on a regular basis is some variant of: “What do I need to know about EV charging?”

So, we thought it would be a good idea to put the most pertinent information all in one place!

This is everything to know about charging electric vehicles.

A complete guide to electric car charging

You need a home charge point installed

We begin our guide to charging electric vehicles with the main way you’ll actually charge your vehicle – at home!

There are many, many different manufacturers of these charge points, so you’ll want to shop around for the one that best suits your needs and budget. They tend to cost £250-£500 for a 3kW charger and £450-£800 7kW one which will charge your vehicle quicker; not a bank-breaking amount for something you’ll use for years to come.

Better still, the government offers grants for up to 75% off the price of buying and fitting your charge point if you live in rented accommodation, or own your own flat or maisonette. (House and bungalow owners will have to pay the full price themselves, however).

You can also charge your EV at work…

If you help run a business, you’ll be delighted to know the same 75% discount available for private charge points if available on a larger scale for workplace ones.

Through the Workplace Charging Scheme, companies can apply for a grant of £350 per charging socket on up to 40 of those sockets. If you’re looking to reduce your fleet emissions to comply with EU CO2 reduction targets, it’s a brilliant place to start!

…or out and about using public chargers

Away from home and nowhere near your workplace? No need to panic. A quick visit to Zap-Map shows just how many public charge networks there currently are in the UK, and the website’s titular map is one of the best ways to find an EV charger near you.

Essentially what you need to know here is there are three kinds of public charger:

•   Rapid and super-rapid chargers will feed your EV battery the fastest
•   Destination chargers are often offered for free by locations like retail parks to encourage you to visit them
•   On-street chargers tend to require that you sign up for a community payment scheme or pay a one-off fee to use any chargers in that area. They’re typically slower, but can be a great option as a home-charger replacer if you’re visiting somewhere for a few days or weeks, like when you go on holiday.

Chargers come in two types of current…

EV chargers come in AC or DC variants. A DC charger has a built-in converter that typically allows them to charge significantly faster than AC ones.

… three speeds of charger…

Alongside the current option, there are essentially three ‘speed brackets’ of EV charger:

•   Slow (3-6kW)
•   Fast: (7-22kW)
•   and Rapid (24kw+)

However, ‘rapid’ is an umbrella term that can also encompass ‘ultra-rapid’ (up to 350kW) chargers and bespoke ‘superchargers’ (up to 250kW) – as we’ll detail below.

…and with six different EV connector types

Type 1 EV charger Can be a 7kW AC fast AC charger or a 3-6kW slow AC charger.	Type 2 EV charger Can be a 7-22 kW fast AC charger or a 43kW rapid AC charger.	Commando EV charger Can be a 7-22 kW fast AC charger or a 3-6kW slow AC charger.

CCS EV charger 50-350 kW ultra-rapid DC charger	Type 2 EV charger 25-100kW ultra-rapid DC charger.	Commando EV charger 120-250 kW Tesla-compatible DC supercharger.

The faster the charger, the lower the charge time

There’s no one single guide for EV charging times since the technology is evolving all the time, and it highly depends on the vehicle model, the capacity of its battery, and how much power it has left at the time.

That being said, there are some rough estimates you can make:

•   7kW fast chargers will power a 40kWh battery from 0-80% in 4-6 hours.
•   100kW ultra-rapid DC chargers can take around around 15-30 minutes
•   50kW rapid DC chargers can take between 15-60 minutes
•   43Kw rapid AC chargers can take 30-60 minutes.

You should home-charge and rapid-charge to different amounts

A complete guide to electric car charging wouldn’t be complete without some mention of the different amounts to charge your EV’s battery to in different circumstances.

At home you’ll want to charge your battery to 100% overnight, ready for the day ahead. However, on the road using a rapid charger, you’ll want to keep your charge to no more than 80%. That’s because rapid chargers actually slow down after 80% to encourage people not to hog them, freeing them up instead for other drivers.

You should also be mindful of letting your EV’s battery drop below 20% as this can adversely affect the capacity. Try and keep it between 20%-80% during regular use to get the longest battery life possible.

And with that, our guide to charging electric vehicles is complete!

Is an electric vehicle in your future?

Whether you’re thinking about leasing for yourself, or you’re responsible for your company’s fleet, if you’ve read this far then getting an electric vehicle is likely on the cards for you not too far down the line.

If you’d like straightforward advice about all things EV, whether that’s the latest models, recommended charge points, charge times or anything else that comes to mind, then please get in touch – our expert team will be happy to help!

More recent posts

• EVs for Long Drives: Better Than You Think!
• Is an EV Really Cheaper To Run?
• Electric, Petrol, Diesel and Hybrid Vehicles: Benefits & Drawbacks
• How Can You Keep Fuel Costs Down?
• What Does Current Vehicle Availability Look Like?

If you’ve never leased a business vehicle before it can feel like a daunting idea – especially as there is so much misinformation around it! Read this post to get business car leasing explained and many of the most prevalent myths about car leasing debunked. (Think of it like a mini business car leasing FAQ).

Why is leasing good for businesses?

1. You don’t need a big deposit

The first crucial piece of info we need to get out the way to get business leasing explained is that you don’t need an enormous deposit. We realise these can be a really big blocker to making leased vehicle affordable so at WVL we’ll make every effort work around your budget and find a solution that works for everyone.

2. You can modify leased vehicles (in line with your leasing agreement!)

You might think that because the vehicle isn’t yours, you can’t make changes to it. But as long as they’re reasonable and agreed up front, you’d be surprised how flexible our leases can be. Whether you want to change the wheels, install a dash cam or add a tow bar, get in touch with us first and we’re likely to be happy to accommodate your changes.

3. Bad credit or low business value doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t lease a vehicle

We’ve had many instances where someone approaches us needing a small business car lease, but they’re either a new business or their credit history isn’t fantastic. In these situations, a larger leasing company might give you an outright no, but we’ll dig into the details to work out how we can reduce the risk for ourselves as the leasing company.

It could be that the smaller firm has a larger parent company we can use instead, or that we can credit check the company owner and agree to stack the risk against his or her personal estate. We’ll never turn down a lease before investigating every avenue, and more often than not there’s a way we can solve the problem to everyone’s benefit.

4. There are all kinds of lease lengths – with flexibility built in

Another of our ten truths about business vehicle leasing is that lease lengths can be much more flexible than you probably think! At WVL we’re able to offer short-term leases that start at 30 days and go up to two years. We can also offer even shorter-term rentals if you need a vehicle in a hurry (often because a fleet needs vehicles for a show, or a vehicle is off the road for maintenance reasons). Plus, we’re even able to extend leases at the end of contracts in certain situations (more on that in point ten).

5. More than just the named driver can drive a leased car

When we’re talking to a fleet manager, one of the ways we get the ease of business leasing explained to them is by saying “you won’t even have to talk to us – we’ll deal directly with the driver.” And it’s true, we can work directly with the person who’ll be driving the car to pick a vehicle that will suit their needs.

However, if you need that vehicle to be a pool car, that’s perfectly fine – it’s leased to your company, after all. So long as other drivers have the right credentials and the insurance conditions are all satisfied, more than just the vehicle’s named driver can drive a leased vehicle.

6. Not owning the vehicle can actually save you money…

One of the biggest reservations we hear about taking out a small business car lease is that it’s dead money. You don’t own the vehicle so you can’t sell it and recoup its value – the money spent has no return. There is, however, another way to look at it that turns things completely on their head.

Say you buy a vehicle for £35k and drive it extensively for two to three years. Depreciation means the vehicle is likely to be worth a third to half of what you originally paid for it! Now all of that is what we’d call dead money.

7. …and can save you a massive headache on maintenance and other logistics, too!

Not only that, but with an owned company vehicle you’re responsible for all of the vehicle maintenance costs, as well as having the headache of manually insuring, taxing, MOTing and maintaining the vehicle yourself – alongside every other vehicle that you own in your fleet. It might look better on your balance sheet having more property, but the real-world cost of having those depreciating assets soon adds up.

With big or small business car lease, you don’t have the huge up-front cost, you don’t need to worry about depreciation, and you don’t have the ongoing logistics to concern yourself with, since we’ll do all of that for you. You just set up the agreement, pay your monthly fee, then give your car back and get another vehicle at the end of the contract.

And with that, another major myth about car leasing is debunked!

8. Business car leasing can simplify your fleet management immeasurably

That last point about us doing everything for you also means that fleet management can go from something fraught and unwieldy to something that almost feels like it looks after itself. If you’re a fleet manager it can free you up to get involved in other areas of the business, and if you run fleet as part of your wider role, like HR or finance, it can give you the scope to focus fully on the part of your job you love the most.

9 and with our simplified process, it’s surprisingly straightforward to do

Setting up a vehicle leasing agreement is more straightforward and painless than you might fear. We’re part of the GKL group, which means we follow the same common-sense approach to vehicle leasing. We’ll discuss your needs, get you credit checked, give you a financial proposal and move to ordering the vehicle as quickly as possible – giving you the best chance of getting what you need in a climate where new vehicles are often like gold dust.

10. Have a long wait for your next vehicle? Our informal contract extensions can keep you mobile

As hinted at in point four above, as a more dynamic we’re smaller company we’re not hamstrung by the rigid end-of-contract policies that larger leasing firms often are. Especially in an era where vehicle availability is unpredictable, we’ll do everything we can to keep you mobile. If that means extending your lease until your next vehicle is available, we can in 99% of cases offer informal contract extensions to let you do exactly that. We deeply care about keeping you mobile, and believe that large or small, business car lease agreements should be as straightforward and hassle-free as possible.

So… is it worth getting a car on a business lease agreement?

Absolutely! As these ten truths about business vehicle leasing make clear, leasing rather than buying a vehicle for business purposes can take the headache out of day-to-day fleet management while meaning you never need to worry about vehicle depreciation or day-to-day logistics. Plus, with our corporate buying power and contacts, we often have access to vehicles that you might struggle to find available in the purchase market at the moment.

We may be biased of course, but we feel business car leasing just makes sense. Get in touch today to discuss how it can work for you.

More recent posts

• Why Open Leasing is the Perfect Stopgap
• What Does Current Vehicle Availability Look Like?
• Can Car Salary Sacrifice Work for Your Employees?
• How Can You Keep Fuel Costs Down?
• EVs for Long Drives: Better Than You Think!

EVs for Long Drives: Better Than You Think

Can you drive long distances with EVs? And if so, which electric car is best for long drives? Read on to answer those questions and more!

How good are EVs for long drives?

Range anxiety is one of the biggest blockers to making the switch from petrol, diesel or even hybrid models to a fully electric car. With that in mind, we thought it was about time we addressed that perception by looking at how good EVs are for long journeys, starting with one of the most popular questions we get on the subject…

Which electric car is best for long drives?

According to Auto Trader, the longest-range EV currently on the market is the Mercedes-Benz EQS which boasts an impressive battery range of 485 miles on a single charge.

However, given the high ticket price (roughly £102,000 to buy, with rental prices equivalently costly) of the EQS, a more mainstream option might be the UK’s best- selling electric car in 2021, the Tesla Model 3.

According to Car Magazine, the Model 3 has a range of between 305, 340 or 374 miles depending on whether you opt for the standard, Performance or Long Range versions. A purchase price of around £47,000 for the standard edition makes the Model 3 a much more affordable option for individuals, as well a more attractive one for businesses looking to lease an EV capable of going longer distances on a single charge.

If you’re looking for a more affordable option still, the Nissan Leaf has a full-charge battery range of around 226 miles. Not bad for a fully electric-vehicle that retails for under £30,000, with leasing terms that are some of the most attractive on the EV market.

So, can you drive long distances with EVs? Absolutely – and EV Database offers a wider insight into the various distances you can expect from electric vehicles. Plus, with the speed of battery charging only set to increase, the range of your average consumer electric car is only likely to increase in the coming years as EV vehicles become more commonplace.

However, in the here and now, there are some things we’d suggest keeping in mind when driving an electric car for hundreds of miles…

Our tips for electric car long distance driving

1. Slow charge your EV overnight wherever possible

Charging at home is likely to be the cheapest way to power up your electric vehicle, and the best way to get it to a full 100%. (More on that in point four below). It’s also the best way to extend the battery life, with too much rapid charging known to adversely affect your battery’s capacity. If you’re at home, we’d suggest plugging in your EV each night. If not, we’d suggest using a neighbourhood charging scheme or slower destination charger like those at a hotel.

2. Plan your journey to factor in fast charging

If you plan on driving a long distance, plan ahead using any of a number of different apps and services. We favour Zap-Map here at WVL and have used it previously to calculate distances for different EV journeys over on our piece comparing EVs to ICE cars. You can use the Zap-Map website or app, or there’s also Tesla, Pod Point and Auto Trader apps if you prefer.

3. Know your charger types and carry your compatible cables with you

Do you know the difference between an AC and DC EV charger and which one your electric car is compatible with? What about the distinction between different charger adapters? Zap-Map has this information and more, so we’d suggest reading up on it all before you make the switch to an electric vehicle. The range of options can feel a little dizzying if you’re new to the world of EVs, but the good news is that your electric car is likely to come with the most popular adapter types, letting you plug in to the majority of charge points should you need to charge up in a hurry while taking your electric car long distances.

4. Don’t rapid charge your battery above 80%…

As we mentioned above charging at home is the best way to get your EV’s battery to 100%. That’s because public rapid chargers will actually slow down your charge after 80%. It’s a measure used to make sure people don’t hog chargers longer than they need to and keep them free for other drivers – and also the reason that EV charge times tend to be given in ‘time to charge to 80%’ rather than to 100%.

5. … Or let your EV’s battery drop below 20%!

Our fifth and final tip for electric car long distance driving is to make sure you don’t let your battery dip below 20% too much. Just like relying too much rapid charging, this can negatively impact the overall capacity of your EV’s battery, so make sure to plan those rapid charge stops in the middle of your journey.

Are you ready to make the switch to a full EV?

If you came here wondering ‘how good are EVs for long journeys’ – hopefully we’ve helped answer that question!

If you’re looking to lease an EV – whether for personal or business use – our team at WVL have access to the full market of electric vehicles, and can help you navigate currently-tricky vehicle availability to land an electric vehicle that can suit your needs – in both the short and long term.

To find out more about how we can help you make the switch to electric vehicles, check out the blogs below or get in touch with us today.

More recent posts

• How Can You Keep Fuel Costs Down?
• WVL & GKL Electric Vehicle Open Day
• Is an EV Really Cheaper To Run?
• Electric, Petrol, Diesel and Hybrid Vehicles: Benefits & Drawbacks
• What Does Current Vehicle Availability Look Like?