EV charging: control, compliance & managing reimbursement for fleet managers

Summary

The latest AFC webcast, sponsored by Bynx and hosted by AFC’s head of content David Betteley, examined one of the fleet industry’s toughest challenges: managing EV charging costs and compliance without creating new administrative burdens.

David was joined by Matthew Briggs, CEO of Edenred Mobility UK, and Charlie Cook, founder and CEO of Rightcharge. Together, they explored how fleets can balance the commercial realities of electrification with the operational complexity of managing home, work and public charging.

The webcast began with an acknowledgment that electrification is now an economic and regulatory necessity. “Fleet electrification is the aim of regulators,” David noted, “and today fleet represents the majority of EVs on the road.” However, as he emphasised, “the economics only make sense if the majority of charging is done at home.”

Product and market positioning

Charlie Cook outlined the policy background. The UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate has been the main driver of progress, “a stick rather than a carrot,” he said, “but it’s forced the market in quite a good way.” Cook argued for greater focus on used EVs, suggesting that extending grants to second-hand vehicles could be transformative.

Matthew Briggs agreed that cost is the main barrier for most fleet operators. “One of the barriers for adoption is the cost of the vehicle itself,” he said. Even with manufacturer discounts, EVs are still more expensive up front. But he also identified a second challenge – education. Many fleet managers still misunderstand total cost of ownership. “There is a naivety or ignorance as to the true cost of running an EV,” he explained. “It’s not just the upfront cost; it’s the entire life cycle.”

The conversation moved from range anxiety to what Briggs called “payment anxiety.” He described how drivers are often unsure which app to use, whether a charger will work, or what it will cost. “It’s not that the infrastructure isn’t there,” he said, “it’s whether, when I get there, it will work and can I pay easily.”

Cook added that perception lags behind reality. Surveys consistently show that “90–95% of electric vehicle drivers say they will not go back to petrol or diesel.” Once drivers make the switch, they rarely look back – but fleets are still cautious.

This led to a central operational question: how to manage home charging reimbursement. With diesel, the process was simple – fuel cards, receipts and mileage logs. With EVs, the lines blur between personal and business energy. Briggs noted: “Either the employee has been short-changed, or the employer is paying too much.”

Here the Edenred–Rightcharge partnership provides a practical solution. Cook explained how it works: drivers link their home charger, energy account, and vehicle in the Rightcharge app, and from then on, “they just plug in, go to bed, wake up, drive away.” The system identifies which charging sessions relate to the company car and credits the exact amount to the driver’s home energy bill. “They get a credit that exactly equals what they’ve spent charging that work vehicle,” Cook said.

For fleet managers, all those transactions flow into Edenred’s platform, alongside public charging costs, producing a single invoice. Briggs called it “accuracy, transparency and ease” for both employer and employee. He added that while “not all customers completely embrace it yet,” this model offers the clarity and fairness that large fleets demand.

A remaining challenge is infrastructure for drivers without driveways. Briggs said several major van fleets have delayed electrification for that reason. “They are clinging onto ICE vans as long as they can because there isn’t a credible solution,” he explained. Cook pointed to emerging fixes: cross-pavement cable gullies, lamppost chargers, and underground car park installations. He cautioned against focusing only on the cost of public charging: “You need to look at total cost of ownership across home, on-street and public charging.”

Tech, data and regulation

In the second part of the webcast, the discussion turned to how technology and data can simplify EV management and ensure compliance.

Briggs was frank when asked how integrated the Edenred–Rightcharge system is with HMRC requirements: “Is it 100% integrated, provided all the data? No, it’s not. But we are well on with the journey.” He said the goal is a single, fully HMRC-compliant invoice that captures both home and public charging data. “Ease and accuracy are fundamental,” he said.

Cook added that vehicle data is improving fast as OEMs open up telematics access. Rightcharge has partnered with Volteras, a company that verifies which vehicle is being charged and provides a secure data feed for billing. “We’re seeing OEMs opening up to the value of sharing data,” Cook said, predicting that vehicle data quality will soon become a factor in purchase decisions.

Briggs agreed, suggesting that OEMs’ willingness to share data could even influence brand loyalty. “The OEMs play a really important role in the mobility ecosystem,” he said. He also discussed how in-car payments are beginning to merge with the wider “paytech” world. “Vehicles themselves are becoming payment mechanisms,” he said, citing Tesla’s real-time data use for insurance pricing as an example of how this integration could evolve.

The webcast also addressed road pricing, an inevitable policy issue as fuel duty revenues fall with declining petrol and diesel sales. David asked if per-mile road charging was likely. Briggs said the technology already exists but questioned whether society would accept the loss of privacy. “Do we as a society want to be tracked on everything, every journey we do?” he asked, comparing it to black box insurance for young drivers. “As soon as they’re out of that high-premium space, they remove the black box.” The issue, he concluded, is not technological but philosophical.

Both speakers agreed that EV management must balance compliance, privacy and convenience. The ultimate goal is automation – charging data, vehicle data, and payment data combining to create a single, transparent cost record for every fleet driver.

What are the asks for the Chancellor in the forthcoming Budget

In the final section, the discussion turned to what measures the UK government could introduce in the upcoming Budget to accelerate fleet electrification and address the barriers that still hinder widespread adoption.

Charlie Cook’s primary concern was the cost of electricity. “It’s some of the highest pence per kilowatt-hour in the world,” he said. He argued that grid investment costs should be taken out of the electricity unit rate and funded through general taxation. “We’re happy to spend £100 billion on HS2,” he said, “but not a penny on reinforcing our grid infrastructure.” He also advocated reducing VAT on public charging to match domestic rates, helping those who can’t charge at home.

Matthew Briggs called for stronger purchase incentives for both new and used EVs, and stability in company car taxation. “A review of the vehicle purchase incentives, new and used,” he said, would help remove the cost barrier. He also urged the government to keep Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) rates low to encourage company car drivers to go electric. Briggs predicted the current 5p fuel duty reduction would likely be reversed, raising the price of petrol and diesel and, by default, strengthening the EV case. “That would be another stick rather than a carrot,” he said.

The conversation also covered infrastructure. Concerns were raised about business rates and connection costs for public charging sites, which deter investment. Cook noted: “The biggest bottleneck to increasing the rollout of public charging is grid connection and the constraints we have,” he said. Simplifying those processes would accelerate deployment and support the fleet transition.

Even with phase-out dates of 2030–2035, fleets will be managing mixed fuel types for decades. Briggs noted that Edenred’s current customer base is still “90% petrol/diesel, 10% EV.” Both speakers expect a long hybrid era where fuel and electricity coexist.

Briggs called this “the biggest shift in 100-plus years in how we’ve fuelled our vehicles.” Cook concluded that fleets don’t need to predict 2035, they need solutions that let them operate diesel and electric side by side, efficiently and compliantly, today.

The webcast ended on a pragmatic note. Fleet electrification isn’t just about technology, it’s about turning kilowatt-hours into compliant, auditable transactions with the same simplicity as a fuel card.