SVA becomes the UK’s greenest auction after achieving Electric Vehicle Approved status

SVA becomes the UK’s greenest auction after achieving Electric Vehicle Approved status

Shoreham Vehicle Auctions (SVA) is the first auction to be awarded Electric Vehicle Approved (EVA) status to celebrate its commitment to environmental initiatives.

The Electric Vehicle Approved scheme has been developed by the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) to recognise supplier and dealer excellence in the electric vehicle sector. It is endorsed by the Government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) and the Energy Saving Trust.

The scheme encourages suppliers to develop their ability in selling electric vehicles and recognises SVA’s expertise in the electric vehicle sector and promotes industry standards for the benefit of both buyers and sellers at auction.

SVA has rolled out a number of environmental initiatives over the past 18 months as part of its ambition to achieve net zero status whilst supporting its external customers.

This includes installing 140 solar panels on the roof of its premises which produces 50kW of clean energy daily which helps power 15 chargers that charge the growing number of EVs being sold at auction and to power SVA’s own company vehicle fleet.

90% of SVA’s company vehicle fleet are now EVs and recently its electric Nissan eNV200 minibus - used by its plate drivers - passed 150,000 miles. SVA has also achieved ISO 14001 the internationally agreed standard that powers its environmental management processes.

“Our plans for becoming a net zero business have been in place for the past three years and we are pleased so many of those initiatives have started to come together. We are virtually 100% energy sufficient thanks to our solar panels and our internal processes have been brought into line with our ISO14001 accreditation,” said Alex Wright, SVA’s MD.

“We would like to thank NAMA and the EVA for this award. We were pleased to pass the EVA audits with flying colours and like to think we are now the industry’s greenest auction provider,” he added.

Energy Saving Trust independently audits individual suppliers to verify they meet a set of standards covering EV sales. These include staff knowledge and training, EV education processes for customers as well as availability of EV service charge points on site.

SVA has worked with the Energy Saving Trust since 2019 when it was the first auction to roll out training to its own staff and to dealers to educate them on what to look for when selling used EVs to its customers.

For more details, visit the EVA website www.evapproved.co.uk

Picture caption: Michael Simmons, SVA’s operations director and MD Alex Wright with their EVA certificate