Gerry Keaney, chief executive of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), has called on Government to “get its act together” and address the “obvious failures” in its short-term tax policies for electric cars.

The current company car tax and VED rates act as “a positive disincentive” to fleet operators and drivers who want to take an electric car as a company car, Keaney told delegates as the BVRLA’s annual Fleet Technology Congress.

The company car tax band for zero emissions vehicles is currently scheduled to increase over the next two years to a high of 16% in 2019/20, before dropping to 2% the year after. The BVRLA wants the Government to accelerate the introduction of the 2% band.

“Short-term tax policy relating to electric cars today makes zero sense to anybody,” Keaney said. “It doesn’t reflect any sort of connected thinking between an air quality objective, between the diesel campaign that’s going on, between the tax harmonisation objectives.”

He urged the Government to take action in November’s Budget because “if it wants to make a difference, that is the single biggest thing it can do to accelerate the take-up of electric cars”.

Once the Government has addressed its short-term tax policy it needs to look at the longer-term because as the take-up of electric vehicles grows, the tax yield from both company cars and private cars will decline rapidly, Keaney said.

“There needs to be a grown-up discussion in the UK about what is going to replace the current tax yield that comes from cars when looking to tax electricity, for example. How is electricity going to be taxed? What is the role it’s going to play? How is it going to be addressed?”

Keaney repeated calls from the Fleet Industry Manifesto, put together by Fleet News, fleet operators’ association ACFO and the BVRLA in 2015, for the Government to consider road pricing to replace fuel duty.

“Road charging is politically unacceptable today,” Keaney said.

“But actually, as the tax yield from hydro-carbons declines, there needs to be a discussion, and we need to be part of that, on how we top up the Exchequer’s coffers.”

Read more: Fleet News

EVs to hit 11 percent of new car market by 2030, with up to 40 million charging stations worldwide.

A new study finds that electric vehicles (EVs) and their charging stations are poised to see explosive growth over the next decade.

At the same time, utilities, car companies, and other businesses are pursuing a variety of charging strategies — many of which will be very cheap and possibly even free for consumers.

By 2030, EVs are projected to comprise 11 percent of the new car market, with up to 40 million charging points worldwide, according to a new study by Greentech Media (GTM), a division of Wood Mackenzie.

So power demand for EV charging will soar, led by China, North America, and Europe.

To reach this kind of exponential growth in charging infrastructure, GTM explains, “utilities, along with manufacturers, oil and gas giants and sector-specific specialists, will need to test new business models.”

One of the most innovative business models comes from a U.S. startup, Volta Charging, which bills itself as “the largest free electric car charging network in the US.” It has raised nearly $60 million to create an EV charging network that shows video ads, providing revenue designed to allow free charging for customers.

So far “sponsored stations have delivered over 22 million free electric miles,” the company says, “saving over 9 million pounds of CO2.”

Read more: Think Progress