Businesses interested in investing in electric vehicles for their fleets could receive a free EV Business Plan from Energy Saving Trust experts as part of the ‘Plugged in Fleets Initiative’ it has launched.

The scheme, funded by Transport for London and the Department for Transport, brings together the Energy Saving Trust to work with up to 20 fleets in developing detailed strategic plans for the introduction of EVs.

The initiative follows the publication of the Plugged in Fleets report, which suggests that businesses can save money now when selectively introducing electric vehicles (EVs) within their fleets.

The initiative will lead the companies through a programme of work moving towards EV deployment in their fleets through 2012, undertaking detailed analysis of each successful company's fleet to identify where EV’s work in terms of duty cycle, and then develop a total cost of ownership model including infrastructure plans and costs.

The programme has three key aims:

• To provide a tailored report for each participating company, showing where EVs can fit and benefit their business (and where they won’t)
• To offer valuable lessons for all business fleets: our findings and case studies from the initiative will be published in a final report
• To boost business purchases of EVs

Robin Haycock, project liaison manager for the Energy Saving Trust, said: “TfL and DfT have backed this initiative to bring the fleet analysis expertise of the Energy Saving Trust to fleets to help accelerate the drive towards plugged in vehicles.

“Forward-thinking businesses know that sustainability is not just ‘doing the right thing’ - it can actually increase profits and reduce fuel consumption. We’ll be helping the leaders in the field make a real change this year.”

To download an application form to be part of the Plugged in Fleets Initiative, click here.