DELIVERIES of new cars by vehicle leasing and fleet management specialists Arval fell by only 2% in 2021 compared to the previous year, despite industry-wide supply issues.
Although vehicle supply is still far from pre-pandemic levels, Arval UK has managed shortfalls carefully by working closely with customers to make sure their needs are met.
Paul Hyne, commercial director at Arval UK has explained that this, alongside partnering with manufacturers to forward-order vehicles, has seen Arval UK minimise the impact of vehicle supply shortfalls.
Since supply difficulties began to bite due to the pandemic, we have been talking to customers about the best ways to ensure that they still get hold of the vehicles they need, despite the constrictions that have been widely experienced.
Our advice has not been radical – we work closely with manufacturers, dealers and our customers and help them to plan ahead, order as early as possible, look at alternatives when the models wanted are unavailable and redeploy vehicles – we will continue to work hard to ensure that these options produce the desired results for our customers.
Despite the fact that 2021 was itself a Covid-affected year, we’ve seen a fall of just 2% in deliveries within the current supply situation as something of a testament to the strength of our account management, as well as the trust placed in us by the fleets with which we work. Deliveries are still being made, although the lead times are longer than we’ve seen previously.
Paul Hyne, commercial director, Arval UK
The fleet sector’s accelerating move to electrified models has aided Arval UK with its 2021 deliveries, as looking at the company’s fleet composition shows customers are accepting supply challenges to achieve sustainable mobility targets. Paul continued, saying:
We saw car orders for Internal combustion engine vehicles drop by 22% while battery electric vehicles increased by 135%, hybrid electric vehicles by 153% and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles by 78%. This shows that electrification across our entire UK fleet is a rapidly developing trend.
Our total orders also increased by 24% during the year. This is partially a reflection of the way in which Covid affected orders in 2021, but also illustrates both Arval UK’s current level of growth and the fleet sector’s overall degree of resilience in the face of the challenges it has experienced in the last couple of years.
