Start of ‘green shift’ in commercial transport makes 2019 the year of the electric van

Around 400,000 vans can be found on Norwegian roads. Of these, only a few thousand are eco-friendly electric vehicles, but the latest sales figures show a ‘green shift’ also taking place in the business sector in 2019.

Whereas the media is filled with articles on new sales records for electric passenger cars, the Norwegian business sector has been more reluctant to make the switch.

Over the past decade, the government has offered generous incentives in an attempt to motivate Norwegian companies to reduce their emissions. Tax exemptions and free passage on toll roads are only two examples of how the government has facilitated the introduction of green transport in business and industry.

Nonetheless, electric vans are still strongly underrepresented on Norwegian roads.

The reason for this is probably because there have simply been few electric alternatives that meet driving range and capacity requirements. These alternatives are finally beginning to crop up – and with them new and more stringent demands from property owners, developers and contractors.

Lucrative investment

It’s easy to establish electric transport in today’s business market. Everything is in place for a smooth and profitable transition to eco-friendly electric vans. All you need to do is take the first step. To give you a little nudge, we have three financially flattering reasons to invest in electric and eco-friendly vans:

1. Avoid taxes and enjoy excellent benefits

Like other electric cars, electric vans are exempt from value-added tax, vehicle import duties, annual motor vehicle tax and re-registration fees. Fuel taxes have been replaced by the far less costly electric vehicle tax. There are also benefits on toll roads, public parking spaces and in most public transport lanes. Last but not least, employees enjoy an income tax advantage for the private use of a company car.

2. Electricity beats fuel in terms of price

Electric vans are considerably more inexpensive to use than vans that run on traditional fuels. If you opt for electricity instead of petrol or diesel, you can cut your company’s fuel expenses by up to 80 percent.

3. Eco-friendly buildings have a higher commercial value and rental prices

Environmentally certified new buildings with a low CO2 footprint will have a higher commercial value and higher rental prices than a comparable building without a good environmental profile. In assessing a building’s environmental profile, the CO2 emissions from service vehicles used for the construction is calculated, which is why developers and contractors will require that workers use electric vans.

Easy and effective charging possibilities are essential

Two things are essential for convincing your company to make the switch and take advantage of the numerous benefits and rewards of using electric vans:

1. You must provide effective charging options at the work site.

2. Your employees must have the possibility to charge the company vehicle at home.

At Zaptec, our mission is to contribute to the construction of critical infrastructure in society for charging electric vehicles and our speciality is to facilitate easy and effective charging possibilities, both in the workplace and at home.

Easy car charging at work and at home

In spite of the fact that new electric vans have greater capacity and reach, you need to be able to charge the vehicle at the worksite, at the office and at home, where both the power grid and capacity vary.

Zaptec has developed a smart charging station for companies that adapts dynamically to the power grid and distributes the capacity to all electric vehicles connected. This means that you can have numerous charging points in a small area, expand the charging system with more points as needed and effectively charge all connected vehicles in a profitable way.

When employees take their vehicle home at the end of the workday, they can plug it into our charging station developed for the private market called Zaptec HOME, ensuring a ‘full tank’ when they set off to work in the morning.

P.S. If your employees are working at a customer with a Zaptec charging station, they can simply connect to it, log the amount charged and deduct this from the customer’s invoice.

Complete control with Zaptec charging stations

What truly distinguishes Zaptec from the competition is the cloud-based administrative tool that accompanies the charging system – whether you order one or 100 charging stations.

The system makes it easier than ever to charge an electric vehicle and offers a number of excellent benefits:

• Complete control of consumption and costs, both total and per individual user
• Automatic settlement, effective administration and little additional work
• Possibility of direct access to employee’s private charging stations to view business-related at-home charging
• Employees with Zaptec HOME charging system can use the private electric vehicle at work
• Fringe benefit tax advantage for employees
• Real-time status of all charging stations in your system
• Possibility to upgrade the system to the newest version with no extra installation or costs

Future-proof charging system

Investing in an electric van means investing in the future – and that means you need a future-proof charging system.

Zaptec’s cloud-based charging solutions are developed with the future in mind and are designed for updates based on current and future customer needs and desires.

We want to contribute to a fast and environmentally friendly electrification of the transport sector and develop and produce all of our solutions and products here in Norway. This is not only good news for the environment, but also means technical support closer to home and faster upgrades and new function implementation.

Get Zaptec here