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London Mayor’s fund provides 100 Tesla Model 3s for private hire use Mark Bursa London private hire and ridehailing drivers will be able to rent one of 100 ULEZ- and C-Charge exempt Teslas that have been funded by the Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund. MEEF is a £500 million investment fund designed to finance low-carbon, sustainable projects and infrastructure in London. It is providing capital to vehicle provider Breathe, which plans to deploy 100 Tesla Model 3 EVs to the private hire trade, including Uber, in London. The scheme uses a pay-per-mile platform called Zero, developed by finance technology firm Zeti. A similar scheme has previously been used to finance black taxis in London using MEEF funds. Breathe works like a subscription service, including insurance, maintenance and replacement tyres. Drivers can choose between an ‘Everything Included Ownership’ model giving them the option to own the vehicle after four years, or an ‘Everything Included Rental’ model in which the driver subscribes for use on a weekly basis.
Through the Zeti Zero platform, MEEF will be able to monitor realtime data on vehicle telematics, allowing it to measure the overall carbon savings of the fleet based on the total mileage. Jeff Davis, director of Breathe, said: “Our mission is to provide large scale electric-vehiclesas-a-service offerings and we are excited to be starting with
sustainable, flexible and affordable vehicle subscription options for London’s private hire market. We are seeing huge demand for electric private hire vehicles and MEEF’s funding allows us to expand our operations and help more drivers step into their first EV.” MEEF, launched in July 2018, is supported by sustainable bank Triodos, which has committed a
Plug-in Van Grant scheme extended for further two years – but no news on car grant Mark Bursa The government is extending the Plug-in Van and Truck Grants for a further two years, meaning fleets looking to buy courier or delivery vans can obtain electric vehicles at discounted prices until at least 2024-25. But there is no news about extending the grant for cars, leading to speculation that the success of EV sales means the government might drop the scheme. Announcing the move, the DfT said: “This aims to
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give certainty to fleets and vanmakers, supporting the still early market for zero emission vans and trucks. Plug-in van grant orders in 2021 were over 250% higher than in 2020, and the extension of the grant will support the continuation of this increased uptake.” The move follows last year’s cut to plug-in grants on both electric cars and vans, which saw funding for small vans fall further to a maximum of £2,500, from the £3,000 level implemented in the spring
significant part of MEEF’s capital for the project. This is MEEF’s fourth investment in the low carbon mobility sector. Eligible projects for MEEF include e-mobility, EV charging, alternative fuel stations and hydrogen fuel cells. Since it started, MEEF has brought about energy savings of more than 39m GWh.
2021. For large vans it fell to £5,000 from £8,000. The DfT also said it was changing the eligibility criteria for the Plug in Vehicle Grant from April 1, 2022. Larger vans between 3.5 and 4.25 tonnes would be recategorized as large vans (qualifying for a £5,000 grant) rather than small trucks (up to £16,000 grant, 250 limit per year). The government will continue to allow drivers with standard car driving licences to drive electric goods vans at a higher weight limit, up to 4.25 tonnes, compared to a 3.5-tonne limit for diesel vans. The change allows for the extra weight of the battery pack. The DfT said: “Today’s announcement is to reassure fleets that we have no plans to end this flexibility when it comes up for a five-year review next year. Rather, we are considering how to optimise the rules to support the emerging zero emissions van market. This will support our plans for all new vans to be fully zero emission by 2035.”
APRIL 2022
