Sadiq Khan’s green fund loses £3.2m of taxpayer cash after electric car firm Breathe that supplied Tesla motors to private-hire drivers collapsed into administration

• Breathe operates a subscription service letting customers buy their electric cars
• Funds were pledged by Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund 15 months ago

Sadiq Khan’s green fund could lose millions of pounds of taxpayer’s cash after an electric car firm it invested in collapsed into administration.

The company, called Breathe, supplies electric vehicles to a range of customers from Tesla motors to private-hire drivers and had £3.2m injected into it by the Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF).

The funds were pledged by MEEF just 15 months ago, but earlier this week insolvency practitioners from Begbies Traynor were appointed as administrators, Sky News reports. 

Breathe operates an EV service allowing customers to take full ownership of their car at the end of a subscription period.

The firm’s website continues to advertise its work with the Mayor of London to reduce CO2 emissions and clean up the city’s air.

Sadiq Khan’s green fund could lose millions of pounds of taxpayer’s cash after an electric car firm it invested in collapsed into administration

Breathe operates an EV subscription service allowing customers to take full ownership of their car at the end of the period

As part of a deal for Londoners, the company was working with Transport for London to offer drivers who scrap their car under the new scrappage scheme ‘an additional £500 off their subscription for a brand new, zero emissions EV’. 

But it now also states on the website: ‘Paul Appleton and Adam Shama of Begbies Traynor were appointed Joint Administrators of Breathe EV Limited on 13 June 2023. They are managing the affairs, business and property of the Company.

‘The Joint Administrators act as agents of the Company and act without personal liability.’

In a strange coincidence, the Labour mayor’s new book, which came out last month and is about ‘politics, life, and the future of our city and planet’, is also called Breathe.

It comes amid Khan’s drive to get crack down on diesel vehicles in the capital.

MailOnline revealed this week that TfL handed out £400million worth of fines to motorists who failed to pay the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) charge over a 16-month period.

Breathe supplies electric vehicles to a range of customers from Tesla motors to private-hire drivers and had £3.2m injected into it by the Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF)

Some 2,468,471 penalty charge notices were issued between January 2022 and April 2023 for non-payment of the Mayor’s daily £12.50 rate for driving in London.

Drivers whose vehicles do not meet Ulez emission standards receive a fine of £180 if they fail to pay the charge, although this is reduced to £90 if paid within a fortnight.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, said: ‘The Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund is the largest of its kind in the UK and has already invested in 17 projects across London mobilising over £380m of investment which is expected to save over 38,000 tonnes of CO2 and nearly 40m kwh of energy.

‘MEEF’s original investment of £3.2m in Breathe represents less than 1 per cent of the total funding mobilised by the fund to date.

‘The Mayor is aware that Breathe has recently entered administration. The appointed administrators are working with all parties to complete a sale of the business and if needed realise assets to enable the debt to be repaid.’

Begbies Traynor has been contacted for comment.

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