FLEET Alliance is heading for a record year on the back of increased fleet sales.
The Glasgow headquartered broker reported that, despite pandemic disruption, businesses were returning to the market and pivoting to an electrified agenda.
Martin Brown, managing director of Fleet Alliance, added that nearly 40% of new vehicle orders so far this year had been for electrified vehicles: 25% for either self-charging hybrids or plug-in hybrids; 15% for pure electric vehicles, currently double the UK average run rate.
We are slightly ahead of the market because we embraced green technology early on. Fleet Alliance is one of a number of EV100 companies committed to ‘zero carbon’ by 2030. While we are currently seeing more hybrid and plug-in hybrid sales, these are the necessary stepping-stones on the journey to full electrification.
Martin Brown, managing director, Fleet Alliance
Brown also reported that Fleet Alliance was heading for a potential record year with the increase in fleet sales.
If you told me 12 months ago that we’d see that level of growth, I wouldn’t have believed you. Yet, despite fewer business miles being driven in the past year, that change might be a better fit for electric vehicles. Lower mileage and shorter journeys mean that it’s easier to get the electric vehicle uptake in. It also takes away some of the range anxiety concerns. We are finding that people are less likely to travel on public transport, so we might have more people taking a car rather than taking the train and the bus.
However, Brown added a note of caution, saying that the market had yet to settle down, and it was difficult to forecast travel patterns in 24 or 36 months’ time. “While I don’t see demand for electric vehicles decreasing, I suspect we may well see a rise in ‘active’ travel and for more total mobility solutions,” added Brown.
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.