Centrica : 14 Sep 2021 eading the charge. Brtish Gas takes on John O'Groats to Lands End EV challenge

14 September 2021 eading the charge. Brtish Gas takes on John O'Groats to Lands End EV challenge

By Steve Winter
Head of Fleet, British Gas

We're hitting the road today to play our part in the EV revolution. We're on a mission to make our 12,000 strong British Gas fleet electric by 2025, and a big part of this is helping our engineers across the UK make the switch.

This week our apprentices, engineers and leadership team will be tag teaming two of our Vauxhall Vivaro-e vans on an 874 mile drive from John O'Groats to Lands End, in a bid to show driving an EV won't slow you down. We'll be visiting key cities, including Glasgow, Salford, Wolverhampton and Cardiff, before making it to Lands End on Friday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, kicked things off in Leicester by unveiling our 500^th vehicle, one of the 3,000 we have purchased over the past two years, representing the largest electric vehicle order of a commercial fleet in the UK.

Our mission is to educate and drive EV adoption across our engineer base, as well as to our customers, demonstrating the ease and availability of charging along the way.

Our UK charging infrastructure is constantly expanding, especially through London and the South East where almost half of UK charging points are located. We want to help showcase what it's really like to plan routes, drive and charge an EV, helping to overcome range anxiety and empower our people to get behind our journey to net zero.

We know there will need to be at least 2.3 million charging points nationwide before the end of the decade, equating to more than 700 chargers installed every day until 2030. We are playing our part by electrifying our fleet, as well as helping our customers make the switch.

Our engineers are a driving force in our ambitions to reach net zero - not only will the switch to electrifying our fleet play a big role in Centrica's ambition to be net zero by 2045 as part of our People and Planet Plan, but those on the front line will also help our customers to reach net zero too by installing EV chargers, heat pumps and other low carbon home solutions.

We'll also be using the journey to encourage more people to join our workforce as engineers, as we look to recruit 3,500 apprentices by 2030. We will be picking up some of the current crop of apprentices along the way, inviting them to see some of the low carbon projects that Centrica is involved in, hopefully developing the skills and the passion that they'll need for tackling the net zero challenge.

You'll be able to hear more about our journey this week. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep up to speed on how we're progressing.