Companies could cut the running costs of their fleets* by an average of £350,000 and reduce CO2emissions by more than 5% (830 tonnes) each year by replacing just 10% of their current vehicles with electric models.

The potential savings were identified in a British Gas study, conducted by TRL, the UK's Transport Research Laboratory. The report found that converting 50% of a fleet to electric vehicles would result in an average annual cost saving of £1,753,000 for companies and reduce CO2 emissions in Britain by around 26% (2,320,000 tonnes).

The report found that some sectors can achieve greater benefits than others from a 10% switch to electric vehicles. Fleets in the financial services sector stand to make the highest average fleet saving at £484,000 a year and could cut annual CO2emissions by 5.7%, or 800 tonnes.

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The sector that stands to make the largest purely financial saving is transport and distribution, where companies can save on average £486,000 annually if they convert 10% of their fleet to electric power, and £2.43m if they introduce 50%.

Colin Marriott, Fleet General Manager at British Gas, said: "This report shows that businesses, under pressure to reduce both costs and carbon emissions, cannot afford to ignore the benefits of electric vehicles. Electric vehicles offer us so many benefits as a business that we’re introducing them into our own fleet and aim to have 1,400 by 2015 as part of our drive to reduce fleet carbon emissions by 25%."

The report concluded that financial and carbon savings will vary depending on the specific characteristics of a fleet, such as annual mileage, vehicle duty cycle, types of vehicles used and the price of fuel and electricity.

(CD)