COMPANY car tax changes due from April 06, 2020, are behind a significant uplift in ULEV volume, reckons the Fleet Alliance Group.
The Glasgow-based broker group said it saw 112% growth in sub 75g/km ULEV cars in 2019 compared with 2018.
Martin Brown, managing director of Fleet Alliance Group – whose brands include Fleet Alliance, Intelligent Car Leasing, Intelligent Van Leasing and Neva Consultants – believes drivers were choosing green models thanks to beneficial company car tax bandings.
“We have seen a surge in orders for ULEVS over the last 12 months, with manufacturers such as Tesla, BMW and Land Rover being the real winners on our funded fleet. Pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids have featured very strongly in our fleet mix as companies and drivers have looked to reduce their corporate carbon footprints.
“And we fully expect this trend to accelerate throughout 2020 thanks to the Government’s changes to the BIK scale charges incentivises drivers to go down an all-electric route.”
Brown added:
“There is currently an imbalance between the cost-benefit to the driver through lower taxes, and higher costs to the company through higher rentals. But we expect that gap to also close over time as supply increases and prices come down.”
The Tesla Model 3 was the biggest winner on Fleet Alliance’s funded fleet, with a fifty fold increase in orders as the mid-size executive came on stream H2 2019.
Ralph Morton is the leading journalist in the leasing broker sector and editor of Broker News, the website which provides information and news for BVRLA-registered leasing brokers. He also writes extensively on the fleet and leasing market in both the UK and Europe.