Company car drivers haven’t been left out of the latter. The Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme covers up to 75% of the cost of the chargepoint capped at £350 per unit, and it’s available to drivers who have been assigned an eligible electric or plug-in hybrid company car for six months or more, including rentals and salary sacrifice schemes.However, there’s bad news for homeowners in houses and bungalows, as they’re no longer able to claim.
The process is straightforward. Most installations don’t require planning permission, and some leasing companies will let you add a chargepoint to the same contract as your car or van, pay for it monthly then keep it after the vehicle itself goes back. Unusually, home charging equipment is also not classed as a taxable benefit, as long as it’s for a company car.
The easiest route around this administrative headache is to use HMRC’s mileage rates instead. Drivers can claim 5p per mile for business trips in electric vehicles while plug-in hybrid rates are based on the size of the petrol or diesel engine. The latter should be more than enough to cover the cost of the fuel and electricity used, especially if most of the journey is on battery power.