My Story – Alan Depledge

I have been a confirmed ‘Petrol Head’ since my early twenties, following Formula One and Rallying passionately and attending many races and rallies as often as I could. It was in the late 1970’s that I left the Civil Service to finally follow my interest and join the motor trade, when I became a salesman at a used car dealership in Taunton, Somerset.

Whilst working for a variety of dealerships I made my way up from Salesman to Sales Manager – eventually being promoted to General Manager and running new car dealerships in the West Country. With my passion for anything on four wheels I was happy in this role for nearly twenty years, until – quite out of the blue – I was ‘head hunted’ by a specialist consultancy firm who worked with all the major motor manufacturers.

In my new role as Senior Consultant, I first worked on the Honda account – implementing their Approved Used Car Programme. I enjoyed this role for many years, working also with Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Land Rover and VW, plus motor bike manufacturers Triumph, Honda and Harley Davidson. This work took me to travel regularly to Ireland and Malta as well as all around the UK, where I specialised in not only helping and advising franchised dealers on used car retailing, but also helping them achieve greater volume and profitability.

It was around three years ago that I had – if you’ll excuse the pun – a light bulb moment. I discovered electric vehicles, having found a fascinating You Tube video from a Californian company called EV West. The firm had converted a VW classic Beetle to electric power – and it went like stink! I loved it – I was really impressed, soon became hooked and eager to learn more. I subsequently found more and more videos of EVs, quickly becoming passionate about them; increasingly – and now utterly – convinced that they were the future. An added bonus for me was that many classic ICE cars were going to be ‘saved’ by conversions.

My interest in the situation has steadily developed into realising that I would love to combine my motor trade background, consultancy experience and – of course – my passion for all things electric into my new consultancy business: EV Consulting.
Ever since setting up the company in 2019 things have been pretty hectic, both for me personally and for the EV and battery development, but I have decided that now is the right time to share my enthusiasm, knowledge and experience – with you!