THE government is introducing green number plates to identify zero emission vehicles. They will be introduced from autumn. The plates feature a green flash on the left-hand side and will be available for zero emission vehicles only. The announcement was made by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today (16 June 2020). The government said it plans to drive a green economic recovery and…
INTEREST in electric vehicles is increasing rapidly, with a 148% increase in leasing enquiries. The lease deal aggregator, Leasing.com, says that EVs have suddenly spiked with electric vehicle leasing outperforming the wider new car market by nearly double. It says that interest has been fuelled by enticing deals on the new Renault Zoe – see our downloadable feature Six city cars to…
EUROPE has massively woken up to the potential – and necessisty of electric vehicles – with investment worth €60bn last year in electric vehicles and batteries. Driven by the requirement to meet EU CO2 targets and largely powered by Volkswagen’s significant investment in the technology, Europe’s industry and governments outperformed China with 3.5 times more investment. The report comes from the NGO…
THE company car is seeing a resurgence of interest thanks to electric cars with a zero rated company car tax banding from April 06, 2020. A survey conducted by leading EV broker DriveElectric found that eight out of 10 employees currently opted out of a company car scheme are ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to move back to company cars. And it will…
ELECTRIC vehicle experts, DriveElectric, are predicting a huge uptick in the number of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to be registered in 2020. The Marlow-based leasing broker says that it expects 98,500 BEV registrations, representing an increase of 260% compared with 2019 (37,850 registrations). DriveElectric uses its own model built from its intelligence of the UK market to forecast BEV buyer behaviour. Michael…
THE price of Nissan’s Leaf has been reduced across all trim levels, making the electric hatchback more competitive in an increasingly tough market. The Leaf now starts from £26,355, including the £3,500 Plug-in Car Grant. Having lost customers to the Volkswagen e-Golf in recent months, the new pricing brings the Leaf into line with aggressive leasing rates offered on the electric VW.…
RENAULT has dropped the option of leasing the battery separately on its electric Zoe supermini. When Zoe was first launched in 2013 it was only available as a Battery Lease. This was complemented in November 2014 by the additional option of battery inclusive Full Purchase. Renault’s decision will help clear up a potential source of confusion for customers in the step change…
MORE than one in five motorists say they plan to switch their next car to a pure-electric model. Research carried out by DrivingElectric.com shows that electric vehicles are about to overtake diesels in terms of popularity. Double the number of drivers planning to pick an EV compared with two years ago. Petrol remains the top pick, but pure-electric models have leapfrogged diesel…