Our story.
The people behind CarbonFree Finance bring more than 30 years of experience in vehicle finance, fleet operations and consultancy, alongside nearly two decades at the forefront of electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and energy technology. This experience has been built through developing and running businesses, financing vehicles and working directly with the technologies that are changing how transport and energy operate. We now use that experience to help UK businesses fund electric cars, vans, charging and energy.
Experience
The team has worked on every part of the electric transition: vehicle finance, fleet operations, smart charging trials, vehicle-to-grid projects and intelligent energy management.
ParkRecharge
ParkRecharge is a separate company and one of our charging partners. The team works closely with ParkRecharge on charging infrastructure and energy management.
2008
The team's involvement in electric vehicles began in 2008, when they arranged the finance for the first Tesla Roadster in the UK. At that time, the electric vehicle market was barely established. Charging infrastructure was limited, vehicle choice was extremely restricted and there was little information about long-term operating costs or residual values. It provided an early understanding of both the opportunities and the practical challenges of financing and operating electric vehicles.
2011
In 2011, the team launched Fleetdrive Electric, with the Nissan Leaf as its first car, bringing electric vehicle leasing and rental to businesses when commercial electric vehicles were still relatively new. Working with customers and operating fleets provided valuable experience of vehicle suitability, real-world range, charging requirements and the factors that determine whether electric vehicles make financial and operational sense.
2012 to 2015
From 2012, the team was involved in My Electric Avenue, an Ofgem funded project led by EA Technology with Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution and Nissan, to explore how clusters of electric cars charging on residential streets affect the local electricity network. Fleetdrive Electric managed the delivery and support of the Nissan Leafs and provided participant engagement support, helping to find the streets and neighbours who took part. The project found that around a third of local low voltage circuits would need intervention once 40 to 70 percent of customers have an electric vehicle, and showed that smart control of charging could avoid much of that cost.
2015
From 2015, the team's experience extended into vehicle-to-grid technology, exploring how electric vehicles could become part of the wider electricity system rather than simply consuming power. The potential to use vehicle batteries to manage demand, support buildings and reduce energy costs opened up opportunities that continue to develop today.
2017
In 2017, the fleet business became fully focused on electric vehicles under the DriveElectric name. During this period, the team was also involved in Electric Nation, a major UK smart-charging trial involving 673 electric vehicle drivers. The project provided important insight into how charging behaviour affects electricity networks and how intelligent control can help accommodate growing numbers of electric vehicles without unnecessary investment in grid infrastructure.
2017 onwards
From 2017 onwards, the team's work increasingly focused on intelligent energy management, including AI-based optimisation systems and digital twins. These technologies make it possible to model how vehicles, charging infrastructure, solar generation, batteries and electricity demand interact. Rather than evaluating each investment in isolation, they provide a way to understand the costs, constraints and opportunities across an entire operation.
2018 to 2021
Between 2018 and 2021, this experience also included early home vehicle-to-grid projects using Nichicon CHAdeMO technology. These explored how energy stored in electric vehicle batteries could be used by homes and returned to the electricity network. The work helped develop a practical understanding of bidirectional charging, its technical limitations and the commercial opportunities it could create as vehicle and charging standards evolve.
2025
DriveElectric was sold in 2025, following years of developing the business and helping customers make the transition to electric vehicles. The experience gained through that journey, from early vehicle finance to fleet electrification and intelligent energy systems, now forms an important part of the expertise behind CarbonFree Finance.
Today
Today, the team continues to work closely with ParkRecharge, bringing practical charging infrastructure and energy management experience into the wider proposition. ParkRecharge supports operational fleets where reliability and availability are essential, with experience in smart charging, load management and vehicle-to-grid technology, including work involving around 35 V2G-enabled depots. As bidirectional charging standards become more widely adopted, these capabilities are expected to create further opportunities for businesses to manage electricity costs and make better use of their energy assets.