Grant applications for EV Chargers
With ownership of electric cars on the increase, second home owners increasingly want to install an EV charger for their personal use as well as paying guests.
In September 2024, we signposted one of our luxury holiday lets in Bigbury-on Sea to the Clean Diversification Grant from South Hams District Council and helped them prepare a successful application.
This grant seeks to contribute funds to businesses, including holiday let business, which seek to reduce their environmental impact while continuing to grow their revenue. The funding was match-funding up to £10,000 for capital projects. Examples include solar installations, electric vehicle charging points, air source heating systems, etc.
We've summarised below the impactful evidence we suggested to support their funding application.
Improve Commercial Buildings
Evidence that the property is a commercial holiday let might be done by presenting a piece of Non Domestic Rates correspondence (‘business rates’ from South Hams District Council)
Examples include confirmation of your registration or 100% Rates relief, if you have the property registered for this rather than council tax.
A second option might be report/screenshot of the booking history of the property.
Engaging in New Markets
Your holiday let business market is paying guests, which segments into those that want and need an electric charging point for their plug in electric vehicles and those who don’t.
If your holiday let does not have a charging point, you are only selling to one of these market segments.
Electric cars accounted for 15.2% of new car registrations in March 2024 (Electric Vehicles - UK | Statista Market Forecast).
The RAC estimate there are 1.9m plug in electric cars in the UK and 33 million overall (The road to electric - the UK's adoption of electric cars in charts and data | RAC Drive) so that means you could diversify your market by +6% immediately.
Growing Demand
With no new petrol and diesel cars and vans to be sold in the UK after 2035 and a mandate on vehicle manufacturers to sell an increasing number of electric-only models from 2024, the growth of that 6% market segment is at a very high pace.
The United Kingdom is experiencing a surge in demand for electric vehicles, driven by government incentives and increasing concerns about air pollution.
Rural Locations
As of May 2024, the average range of a new Battery Electric Vehicle is 236 miles according to the SMMT.
So while BEVs don't (yet) offer the 500+ mile range offered by some petrol and diesel cars, with the average car trip being under 10 miles a BEV can still make a sensible choice of car for many people.
A Compelling Business Case
These figures make a compelling reason to invest in an EV Charger at your holiday home.
Keep an eye out for local grants that could be available to help cover the cost, for example: Clean Diversification Grant.
Funds are finite and soon allocated but submitting an expression of interest will ensure your place in the queue if more funding becomes available.
