A huge medical technology company with headquarters at a business park in Reading has held an open day to encourage commuters to switch to electric cars.

Becton Dickinson (BD,) which is one of the largest medical technology manufacturers hosted the open day at the Winnersh Triangle business park.

Car manufacturers BMW, Mercedes, Kia and Tesla were present at the event, with staff on hand to provide information about the models available.

Employees from several companies based in the park attended and were seen speaking with representatives of the manufacturers and enjoying lunch from street food stalls.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service at the event, Emma Botwright, fleet manager at BD, said: “What we wanted to do was to provide some influence and some education around electric vehicles, why they are the more sustainable choice for people when they are selecting their next car, and why it’s important to consider electric, rather than the internal combustion engine, which is going to be phased out in 2030.

“The BD fleet is already 60 per cent electric, with another 15 per cent plug-in hybrids, so BD has massively made a move towards electric already.”

The BD UK and Ireland headquarters at Winnersh has 164 designated car parking spaces for staff.

Philip Donohue, EMEA Director of Facilities at BD said that the company averages 128 people a day coming into the offices.

He said: “I’ve never seen the car park full.”

The event was held on Tuesday, September 12.

It was done shortly after World EV Day, which was set up to celebrate electric vehicle (EV) ownership, encourage drivers to switch to EVs and push for enhanced charging infrastructure.

Mrs Botwright said: “The idea was to allow our preferred manufacturers a stage to speak to people from BD and others in the park so that they can have a look at their cars, they can see the technologies, they can alleviate any of their anxieties around EV.

“There is a lot of people who still have range anxieties, about charging infrastructure, about how the vehicles work. But of course we wanted to really fly the flag for EVs.

“From a sustainability point of view, from an Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) aspect, the way we are going to save our carbon emissions is going to be largely in our fleet.

“It’s a key place where we are going to save our carbon emissions and we are already doing that.”

Speaking after the open day, Mr Donohue said:  “It was fantastic to have welcomed so many companies at our event on the Winnersh Triangle campus.

“With over 300 electric vehicles in our UK fleet, our work has resulted in 98 per cent carbon reductions equivalent to taking over 80 tons of carbon out of the atmosphere every year.

“As one of the world’s leading MedTech companies, we are proud of our work in our drive towards a more sustainable future.”

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure is increasing in Wokingham Borough.

The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) has awarded £282,000 from its Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund towards installing more chargepoints in the borough, which was awarded in August.

The fund award came after the council secured an earlier award of £173,500 to deliver an On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme, which will see on-street charging points being installed in Chatsworth Avenue, Winnersh and other locations.