The car-leasing company driving the move to electric vehicles

Our mission is to help people to transition to EVs and make that as easy as possible. But many things have made that challenging,” says Fiona Howarth, chief executive of Octopus Electric Vehicles.

Overcoming those challenges is going to be key if the government is to meet its ambitious target to be a zero contributor to global greenhouse gases emissions by 2050. Transport produces around a third of the country’s CO2 emissions with the majority of that coming from road transport so EVs, and companies such as Howarth’s seem to have an important role to play.

Launched in 2017 by green energy provider Octopus Energy, Octopus EV is taking a two-pronged approach to tackling the transport-generated CO2 problem. Essentially it is a traditional car-leasing company but focused entirely on EVs and powering them with green energy.

The idea to move into car-leasing came from a realisation that EVs were never going to go mainstream if there wasn’t a change in the way they were being sold and the lack of dealership expertise on the ins and outs of these cars.

“We found that people were really interested but didn’t know how to start. People really like seeing lots of electric vehicles in one place, to have someone to chat to about the cars with and also to discuss the charging aspect,” says Howarth.

However, these requirements were not being met by traditional car showrooms. So, in response, Octopus EV decided to hold their own events around the country and convince the public of the benefits of going electric. While Howarth concedes that the initial outlay for an EV can be off-putting, she is convinced that buyers will find that overall costs will be reduced.

“The initial outlay costs are slightly higher, but the government has a £3,500 grant for purchases. The residual value of these cars is very high and with salary sacrifice, you can pay for your EV out of your gross salary. You can roll in insurance and maintenance, saving about 60 per cent of your monthly car costs,” she argues.

But it is in the fuel costs of these vehicles that the real cost savings can be realised.

“The average person spends about £150 a month on fuel but if you switch to electric and charge overnight, you can reduce it down to £15 which is a 90 per cent saving. All of a sudden, its £115 a month for a Tesla model 3.”

Customers have the option of taking on an Octopus Energy contract which allows them to charge their cars with 100 per cent green energy. The smart part is that if the car is charged but not in use, customers can use that cheap, overnight energy to power their home at any time.

“It’s about having a way to store green energy, so you can use it at a time when you want it,” Howarth explains.

Which is pretty compelling but it’s a proposition that requires scale to be truly effective and start contributing towards those government targets. However, movements in the wider market suggest that EVs may finally be set to go mainstream and provide Octopus EV with the scale it requires.

According to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, sales of pure electric battery car sales rose 228 per cent in November this year. And this is no blip – in 2014, an average of 500 EVs were registered per month whereas this year, registrations were closer to 5,500 per month.

This is no doubt aided by the fact that more and more manufacturers are producing EVs with everyone from Jaguar and Mercedes to Nissan and Renault getting in on the act and the necessary infrastructure also seems to be falling into place.

Charging points now outstrip traditional filling stations around the UK and the likes of BP and Shell have acquired charging companies, a real indication of which direction these fossil fuel giants believe the wind is blowing.

“We are right there alongside Tesla, in at the start, managing new tech and new manufacturers and that tees us up nicely to get that growth,” Howarth says.

This tipping point has been a long time coming and something that Howarth has been considering for more than 20 years.

“I remember my physics teacher telling me in the Nineties that we were burning fossil fuels for energy and that there was an alternative in renewables.

“[Not using the alternative] didn’t make sense to me as I knew we were going to run out of fossil fuels and it got me thinking about what we are going to be driving in 50 years’ time,” she explains.

Since then, she has pursued a career in energy in roles at Hive, Ovo Energy and now, Octopus EV where she believes she can finally realise her early ambitions of contributing to society’s move to a greener existence. But while private enterprise can be the vehicle for that change, she is adamant that government must do more to encourage production and take-up.

“They need to get emissions targets in place for car manufacturers in the UK if we leave Europe. They need to signal that ASAP – manufacturers are choosing to set up in Europe as it can count towards their emissions targets.”

It’s going to require the convergence of several interdependent factors to see a wholesale shift to EV use – government incentives, infrastructure, affordability of the vehicles and consumer demand – but Howarth is confident that we are well on the road towards that.

“We will see a radical change on our roads in the next 10 years. The more people have them, the more they are speaking to their friends and neighbours about them. The first movers are the influencers in the market and then it’s a very quick knock-on effect,” she says.