Fleet Assist is celebrating a new milestone for its garage network after servicing more than 30,000 EVs in just 2.5 years.

And to coincide with World EV Day 2021 on 9 September, the business has reiterated its support to help the fleet and leasing industry adopt a more sustainable transport future.

While EV demand is expected to ramp up quick – more than 30% of new car registrations in August were for fully electric, hybrid or plug-in hybrid models – Fleet Assist is already ahead of the game. It’s been growing its EV network capability since 2019, expanding the list of garages approved to work on these vehicle types from 1,614 to 4,000 in just three years – equating to more than 80% of its network.

In a typical year Fleet Assist sees over 860,000 service maintenance and repair jobs being completed by its garage network and it expects 2021 to be a record year in terms of EVs being serviced.

And the business is committed to ensuring the move to servicing hybrid and electric vehicles is as seamless as possible for company motorists.

“Over 80% of our total garage network has the capability to service EVs, and with more than 30,000 jobs completed, we are set up to manage the servicing and maintenance requirements of the growing number of EV and hybrid drivers,” said Vincent St Claire, managing director of Fleet Assist.

“World EV Day 2021 continues to shine a light on businesses making the change towards electric vehicles, and at Fleet Assist, we are proud to be at the forefront of this change. From a slow start, the shift to EVs is accelerating, and this year alone, we predict our garage network will carry out more than 10,000 jobs on EV and hybrids, which will be a new record.”

To further accommodate the future needs of environmentally conscious fleets, Fleet Assist is also preparing to become ‘hydrogen ready’ for when hydrogen becomes the “next big thing alongside EVs”.

Supporting future uptake, Fleet Assist already has nine garages capable of working on hydrogen across its 5,100-strong Fleet Assist network.

Speaking this summer, Chris Crow, Fleet Assist’s head of network, said: “Following work to get our garage network ‘EV-ready’ over the past few years, our next challenge is staying one step ahead of those fleets that wish to operate hydrogen vehicles. We are already working closely with Toyota and Hyundai who currently offer the only two cars available in the UK to service our customers’ cars.

Fleet Assist has also been talking to the IMI about a formal qualification for garages servicing hydrogen cars as currently there is no stand-alone formal course to attend or qualification on offer.

“It’s early days but we have started talking to the IMI about training as we believe hydrogen will become the next big thing alongside EVs as fleets continue to reduce their vehicle environmental footprint,” added Crow.