80% of employees will go back to company cars and opt for EVs

Eight out of ten business employees who currently opt out of a company car scheme are ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to move back to company cars - and these cars will be electric.

This is according to a survey conducted by leasing company DriveElectric.

The return to company cars rather than employees taking car allowances is being driven by a number of issues; one of the main factors is the change to Benefit in Kind (BIK) company car tax: there will be zero company car tax on battery electric cars from April 2020, meaning that employees could save thousands of pounds each year by switching to a pure EV.

The growing number of proposed Clean Air Zones and the lower while life costs are other incentives.

Mike Potter, Managing Director of DriveElectric, explains the link between the return of the company car and achieving the EV targets set by the government: “Our survey shows that eight out of ten business employees are ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to move back to company cars - and these will these will be pure electric. This suggests that, as long as incentives remain, the government’s target of all new car sales to be electric by 2035 - or 2032 - is  achievable, and in addition private buyers will benefit from an increased supply of 2-4 year old used electric cars, spreading the benefit of this investment.

“DriveElectric’s orders are already composed of 95% battery electric vehicles and our average fleet CO2 is 28g/km, although based on our order book, this will very soon drop to 10g/km. With a wide range of new EVs currently coming to market, supported by financial incentives, 2020 is the ideal year for business users to convert to electric - and today’s company cars become vehicles for private motorists in a few years’ time.”