A Plymouth company which set up the South West’s first electric vehicle charger showroom has gone bust owing thousands of pounds in unpaid taxes and loans. AC-EC Electrics Ltd traded as Pro-Charge SW and opened its ground-breaking EV charger showroom in the Millfields in early 2020.
But by the summer of 2023 it was being wound-up voluntarily, as it couldn’t pay its debts, and appointed liquidators in September. Documents filed at Companies House revealed it was owed more than £91,000, but it is uncertain how much of this can be clawed back.
It meant that liquidators estimate just £10,200 will be realised in assets. This will go towards paying a £57,828 bill Pro-Charge SW received from HM Revenue and Customs.
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It also owes an additional £11,237 in unpaid Income Tax, National Insurance and Corporation Tax. One employee is claiming £7,266.
Banks and finance companies are claiming £32,246. Of this, £21,054 is owed to Santander and £8,111 to Business Finance, based in Manchester.
In total, liquidators at Leading Business Services Ltd, in Norwich, estimate creditors will be left short of £101,310. PlymouthLive has tried to contact Pro-Charge SW without success.
The company specialised in the installation of electric charge points and claimed its Stonehouse showroom was the first of its kind in the region.
Pro-Charge had been awarded OLEV (Office for Low Emission Vehicles) accreditation, which entitled homeowners to claim a grant of up to £1,000 to install a charger, and for businesses to claim up to £10,000 from the Government. The Pro-Charge website has been closed down but it had said that with an OLEV grant a charger could be installed for as little as £550 per socket.
The website said: “We can provide bespoke branded charge points to match your business and are accredited as installers of most leading brands of charger, meaning that we can find the perfect chargers for your business needs. We also install battery storage systems to compliment your solar PV installations. Pro-Charge SW can help you apply for the grant funding to make the job easy.”
Pro-Charge advertised OLEV-approeve charger brands including Andersen, Project EV, EVBOX, myenergi, Tesla, podpoint and Zapinamo. It said it has striven to be “the leading brand in EV charging.”
In 2020 the Government announced that new internal combustion engine cars and vans would not be allowed to be sold in the UK from 2030, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has recently delayed the ban by five years, with a new start date of 2035.
