Shoreham Vehicle Auctions (SVA) celebrated putting the 100th dealer used car sales person through a unique used electric vehicle (EV) training course.

Launched in the summer of 2017, it has just congratulated it’s 100th EV training ‘graduate’ Chris Vilkas, managing director of Portsmouth-based Waterfront Cars.

Vilkas said: “The training was excellent and it really helped my team understand more about how EVs work and the target market best suited to buy them.

"We have now set up a separate business called Ecarlogical that stocks hybrid and zero emission used cars.

"We have the confidence to sell them to the high standards that we sell petrol and diesel cars at Waterfront Cars.”

Set up in conjunction with the Energy Saving Trust (EST) the training sessions’ aim is to “equip sales teams with confidence and knowledge to sell EVs to the right target market”.         

The courses were developed by EST working closely with SVA general manager Michael Simmons.

“Much of the industry, particularly the leasing sector have been extremely cautious about electric vehicles, but in our eyes it was simple.

"If we help educate used car dealers sell EVs, they will end up buying more cars and then used prices will gradually rise,” said Simmons.

“That’s why the training course was developed and we have had an amazing reaction from buyers hungry for knowledge.

"Business owners as well as sales managers have been on the course and we have seen the number of bids and sales of EVs at auction rise accordingly.”

Shoreham and EST plan to extend the training to include electric light commercial vehicles in the near future.