THE low-tax, low running cost and environmental appeal of electric vehicles (EVs) is stoking the leasing market, up 72% in the second quarter of this year.
New data from the lease marketing aggregator website, Leasing.com, reports that EV demand increased by 72% between April and June 2022 compared with the same period in 2021.
Meanwhile, consumer and business demand for electrified vehicles (EVs, hybrids and plug-ins) increased by 48% compared with the same period last year.
Demand for internal combustion vehicles (petrol and diesel) fell by 25% in Q2, with petrol desirability falling 14% in the same period. No doubt some of this was due to vehicle availability, skewed by OEMs towards EV supply.
Leasing.com says that latest figures show that electric vehicles are closing the gap on petrol’s dominance in the new car leasing market. It says that electric vehicles saw a 36.5% share of total sales enquiries via the website in Q2 compared with petrol’s 54.5% market share. The gap between the fuel types continues to narrow each month.
Brands with shorter lead times make impact
However, supply issues continue to dictate the sales winners in the new car market.
The marketing aggregator says that consumers and businesses are gravitating towards the models that they can get hold of quickest and demand has softened for those brands with longer lead times. As a result, it has created opportunities for some OEMs to rapidly grow market share.
According to Leasing.com, the top three most popular vehicles on Leasing.com in Q2 2022 were the Nissan Qashqai, Hyundai Tucson and the Cupra Formentor. While the top three most popular EVs were the Tesla Model Y, MG ZS and the Polestar 2.
Paul Harrison, chief partnerships officer at Leasing.com, said:
“The move to electric has been building for a number of years, but the rate of adoption by consumers and businesses in 2022 has exceeded even our own forecasts.
“While we’ve seen consumer engagement remain high in recent months, consumer intent has dipped as a result of ongoing supply disruption, rising new car prices and the household cost of living crisis. Without these big market influences, electric vehicle demand would have undoubtedly been even higher this year which is encouraging for the industry as it looks ahead.”
Paul added that the most popular mileage allowance for lease agreements jumped from 8,000 in Q1 to 10,000 miles in Q2.
Top 10 most enquired cars Q2 2022
1 Nissan Qashqai
2 Hyundai Tucson
3 Cupra Formentor
4 Kia Sportage
5 Vauxhall Corsa
6 Volkswagen T-Toc
7 Tesla Model Y
8 Hyundai Kona
9 Mercedes-Benz CLA
10 MG ZS
Source – Leasing.com
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.
