Happy Third Birthday EV Experience Centre!

The EV Experience Centre marks its 3rd birthday this week and, we’re excited to celebrate with a double offer extravaganza week!

Founded in 2017, the centre encourages the uptake of electric and plug in vehicles in the Milton Keynes area, offering free and impartial advice. We can’t wait to see what the next couple of years hold. 

Our third birthday is this week, and the Electric Vehicle Experience Centre has a couple of special offers, this week only!

• When you buy a 3 day experience, get 3 days extra free!
  
• We’re also offering 30% extra miles on all experiences.
  
  

The discount will be automatically applied when booking a test drive during the offer period and bookings can be made directly at the EV Experience Centre or by calling 01908 229 339.

Offer terms:

1. The third birthday offers cannot be combined with any other ongoing promotions or vouchers at the Electric Vehicle Experience Centre.
2. Multiple bookings can be made by a single individual, providing it is with a different model of electric vehicle for each booking.
3. Drivers must be between the ages of 21 and 75 years of age.
4. Test drive terms and conditions apply, please visit evexperiencecentre.co.uk/test-drive-terms/ for more information and restrictions.
5. Experiences must be booked between Monday 20th July 2020 10.00 and Sunday 26th July 2020 16:00.

NEW Experience Prices!!

Since reopening the EV Experience Centre, we have been fulfilling customers that had frozen bookings but as of today, we are going to be taking brand new bookings for longer experiences.

We have taken the opportunity to revise our experience costs, and the way we offer the experience.
Previously, you could take our vehicles for four, or seven days, with prices based on the car.

Our new structure allows you to build your own experience. 
First, you choose a car from our line-up, which can be found on our website: https://evexperiencecentre.co.uk/electric-vehicles/

Then, you can choose a period of between two-and-eight days to take the experience car for, allowing for anything from an overnight test drive, to a Saturday to Saturday week of electric vehicle driving.

Each day you take our EV for will cost £15, and your included mileage increases by 50 miles per day booked. Take a look at the flexible package choices below.

You can exceed the allotted mileage, however there will be an excess mileage charge of 25p per mile. Also don’t forget, all experiences include a Polar Plus card, which allows free charging on the Polar network for the duration of the experience. 

While our price for our longer experiences has seen a slight increase, we are now able to offer both extended mileages for our longer experiences compared to before, while simultaneously offering a lower entry level cost, for those looking for their first taste of electric.

EVEC – COVID-19 UPDATE

The EV Experience Centre is set to re-open on Tuesday 23rd June 2020, and we will return to normal opening hours, as stated on our website here.

The safety and welfare of our team is our priority, but we are also taking steps to ensure that we protect all of our visitors.

We will be adhering to government guidelines around COVID-19; strict social distancing will be in place, keeping 2 metres apart at all times, a clear one-way system in effect around the centre, regular cleaning will take place and we will be limiting how many people and the number of groups in the centre at any one time.

We’re excited to announce the return of our longer experiences, initially, we won’t be taking new booking as we work our way through rearranging previously frozen experiences, but we will announce very soon when we’ll be taking new bookings.

If you had a booking that was frozen before our temporary closure, please bear with us and we will get in touch with you shortly to rearrange.

Unfortunately, we will not be hosting short 20-minute test drives, however, we will continually assess and update this as necessary.

Our live chat service will be extending its hours and days, from Monday 22nd June live chat will be available 7 days a week, running from 10am – 5pm Monday – Saturday and 12pm – 4pm on Sundays.

It’s Love MK Day!

On this Love MK Day we wanted to take the time to explain exactly what it is that has made us fall in love with this town we at the EVEC call home.

Read more “It’s Love MK Day!” →

Charging, then and now

In a period in which many of our EV’s are standing dormant, it is important to look back on the last few years, and realise how far we have come as an EV community. 

Back in 2018, we celebrated the advent of 1000 rapid charging locations nationwide around this time in April. The data curated by Zap-Map also specified that this consisted of 1,484 devices, meaning many locations consisted of more than one rapid charger.

Now, in 2020, this number of rapid charging locations has more than doubled to 2168, and with 3133 devices we are still seeing installations that can facilitate multi-car charging.

So where are we going? If we apply the growth of the last two years, we expect to see as many as 4700 locations by the end of 2022!

With every rapid charge point installed, the achievable range of EV’s grows even further, so what will your next destination be once you return to the road? Wherever it is, make sure it’s electrifying.

(Data taken from Zap Map website and represent approximate predictions of growth in EV infrastructure, sourced here: https://www.zap-map.com/statistics/ – Zap-Map is the UK’s leading charging point platform. The charging point map, available on the desktop and iOS/Android apps, helps electric vehicle (EV) drivers locate available charge points, plan routes and share updates with the community.)

Happy Benefit in Kind day!

Happy 0% benefit-in-kind day! From today (06/04/2020) Benefit in kind for electric vehicles drops to 0%, while in 2019, BIK worked out at 16%, this adjustment to 0% represents a massive saving. This accompanies changes across the board favouring lower emission vehicles.

Below is some more information about benefit in kind and how it can help you as a company car driver, as well as a non-company car driver considering making the switch.

But what is benefit in Kind?

When you engage in any form of salary sacrifice scheme on a car through your business, you will often find that the government taxes this perceived benefit, through a system called Benefit in Kind (BIK).

Often, this BIK is measured against the value to you of your car, accounting for things like the car’s value, as well as fuel type.

The value of this can be reduced in cases such as; you use it part-time, you make a contribution towards the cost, you receive fuel contributions or, as is most important to this article: It has low CO2 emissions.

What does it mean to me as a company car driver?

The savings can run up to £1300 a year as shown on our chalkboard we advertised in our centre very recently!

Across your company car catalogue, it can mean that an electric car represents a massive saving when compared to other combustion models in class, meaning you can operate an electric car in a higher class than normal, or run a similar class to your existing vehicle at a massive saving to your fuel costs, and with the complete removal of BIK tax.

Additionally, with the transition of emissions testing moving from NEDC testing to WLTP, some high CO2 combustion vehicles may well see their BIK taxation increase, in line with the government’s green fleet targets.

What can it mean to me as a non-company car driver?

If your company is offering a salary sacrifice scheme this can represent a much more attractive offering than previously.

Normally on salary sacrifice schemes, you would pay a monthly fee for the car and a benefit in kind figure as a form of tax, with the movement to 0% benefit in kind an electric company car can represent a surprisingly low salary sacrifice, as well as a vast decline in maintenance and fuel costs when compared to your current combustion vehicle.

EVEC – COVID-19

During the on-going COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the safety and welfare of our team is our priority, but we are also taking steps to ensure that we protect our customers and suppliers. We want to reassure you that we are monitoring the latest government advice on the appropriate level of action and encourage our customers to do so as well. Therefore, we have made the decision to temporarily close the Electric Vehicle Experience Centre with immediate effect.

Given the social distancing restrictions and safety concerns to both the EVEC staff and members of the public it is not possible to continue to run the centre effectively. The Milton Keynes Council and BP Chargemaster support our decision to close the site and we will be in contact regarding the reopening of the centre.

Please see below for additional information regarding test drive bookings.

I have a long-term test drive booked – what should I do?

If you have an upcoming test drive booked with the EV Experience centre, a member of the EVEC team will be in contact to discuss rescheduling or to arrange a full refund. If you haven’t been contacted, please email us at enquiries@evexperiencecentre.co.uk with your contact number and a member of the team will be in touch.

How can I contact the EV Experience Centre if I have a question?

The best way to contact us while we are temporarily closed is to email us at enquiries@evexperiencecentre.co.uk and someone will respond as soon as possible. We will also still be manning our social media channels on Twitter and Facebook, so please feel free to contact us on there as well.

When will the centre reopen?

This is unfortunately unclear at this time; we will continue to follow Government advice to ensure the safety of our staff and members of the public but will keep all our customers updated via our social media channels (Twitter and Facebook)

I had a test drive experience and have since bought an electric vehicle, can I still get the refund?

If a customer goes on to purchase an electric vehicle after previously having a long-term test drive with us, we offer a full refund of the test drive cost as a thank you for becoming an EV driver. This can be redeemed up to 18 months after the test drive. 

Unfortunately, whilst our team are not at the EV Experience Centre we are unable to process any payments, however please email us at enquiries@evexperiencentre.co.uk and you will be refunded as soon as we are able to reopen the centre.

We will make sure to update our customers via social media regarding the reopening of the EV Experience Centre but in the meantime please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have a question or concern.

MINI Electric on display now!

In the early hours of this morning, the EV Experience Centre received a rather large care package from our partners at MINI. With a delivery of a Level 1 display model, the entry-level car can now be viewed at the experience centre for the coming weeks.

On top of this, we have also received a cut-away model of the MINI Electric, allowing full view of how MINI has enabled their cooper to keep it’s revolutionary shape, while adapting to house an entirely new drivetrain.

By the numbers, we expect the MINI Electric to be achieving a real-world range of at least 120 miles with its 33kWh battery. For speed numbers, the MINI Electric achieves 0-37mph in 3.9 seconds, and 0-62 in 7.3, with its 184bhp motor.

We hope to be able to offer test drives in the near future, however, our demonstrator cars remain in transit, watch this space!

In the time being, enquire about our MINI Countryman PHEV experience drives, available on both a short term, and long term experience basis!

The New Volkswagen e-Up joins the EVEC

Three new 2020 Volkswagen e-ups join the EV Experience Centre test drive fleet, available now on both short, and long term experiences!

Last revised in 2017 with a real-world range of around 60 miles, the 2020 model doubles this to a real-world 125 miles. For those of you who enjoy your numbers, the e-Up! now carries a 36kWh (32kWh usable) battery, giving it a WLTP tested range of 162 miles.

It achieves an output of 82hp, with an impressive rapid level of performance, leaning the car closer to its GTI counterpart than many would expect. 

The new e-up! and other similar models from Volkswagen Auto Group’s other manufacturing arms now represent one of the best entry-level electric vehicles in the market if you are targeting exclusively low costs, starting out at just inside £20k. 

Starting from today, one e-up will become a permanent short term test drive car, while the others will be available for long term experiences, starting out at £50 for 4-day experiences, moving up to £75 for 7-days, subject to our usual terms and conditions!

We hope to see you up! here soon, for your Electric Vehicle Experience. 

EVEC BECOMES MKFM PRINCIPAL PARTNER

There is no better day than World Radio Day to announce our new principal partnership with MKFM, Milton Keynes’ local radio station. After over a year of working with MKFM in promoting the uptake of electric cars and the EV Experience Centre, we decided to take our relationship to the next level!

Our new partnership mean more features around electric cars, as well as facts and figures on driving electric and making the switch. Our EV gurus will also be making featured appearances on the airways, and at various business events, such as ‘The Meet of MK’, in the near future.

It has never been easier to keep up to date with the latest news from the EVEC; our biggest announcements will now be broadcast across Milton Keynes, as well as featured on our social media channels and MKFM’s social media platform.

The electric revolution has arrived, and is now being broadcast directly to your car radio. Tune into MKFM at 106.3 to learn more about us and the electric vehicle experience!