After experiencing the EV Rally as a guest last year, Kwik Fit is returning in 2026 with its own team, two branded VW ID Buzz vehicles and a checkpoint showcasing the latest developments in tyre management, battery health and sustainable fleet support. Fleet Sales Director Tom Edwards explains more
We are delighted that Team Kwik Fit is taking part in this year’s EV Rally. What made you decide to get involved?
I joined the EV rally last year as a guest of Tusker, one of our fleet customers, and had a great time. But not only was it an enjoyable trip, it was really helpful in understanding the decisions some of our fleet customers were making, such as the type of support they needed in terms of tyre management and SMR (servicing, maintenance and repair) work.
With a number of our customers taking part this year, we felt that we should become even more involved by joining with our own team and also offering to host a checkpoint. There are lots of opportunities for knowledge sharing amongst companies which have been in the vanguard of EV adoption and we’re looking forward to having some interesting conversations.
We are the leading supplier of tyres to UK fleets and we know from many years’ experience that where the fleet market leads, the mainstream car parc follows. As a result, we gain a significant advantage from being able to apply our fleet experience to serving the private motorist.
Can you tell us about your team – who will be taking part and what vehicles will you be driving?
We will have quite a fluid team as we want as many people to take part as possible. From Kwik Fit, we will have members of our fleet account management teams and senior representatives from our mobile division, as well as colleagues who lead in product areas such as SMR and EV battery health, training and our overall operations. In addition, we will be joined by representatives from a number of our fleet customers, as well as our tyre partners.
Our choice of car is the VW ID Buzz - we will be driving a pair of them with full branding – you won’t miss us! One carries the Kwik Fit livery and the second is branded with its sister network, Tyre Pros. We decided to have both join the rally as the Tyre Pros network forms an important part of our fleet offering and so is very familiar to many of our customers.
Are there any aspects of the EV rally that you expect to be challenging? If so, how are you planning to address them?
We’ve got a lot of experience with EVs both professionally and personally, so we’re all pretty comfortable with what’s ahead of us.
Most of us spend quite a bit of time on the road meeting customers and visiting our centre network so we’re not fazed by the long distances or time in the car. We want to make a few stops along the way to highlight the rally with other contacts who aren’t taking part, so the biggest challenge may come from trying to fit too much in.
This year's rally theme is busting EV myths and misinformation. Is there a particular myth that you would like to challenge on the rally?
It’s perhaps not so much busting a myth as challenging the belief that tyres are just black and round and there’s not much difference between them.
The reality is the tyre market is becoming ever more complex. Not that long ago 50 tyre sizes would meet the needs of 90 per cent of fleet vehicles. At Kwik Fit we now see the most popular fleet vehicles being fitted with up to 250 different tyre sizes – and the list of regular fitments is now well over 1,000.
And that’s not just coming from the variety of vehicles in a fleet - the range of specification within even a single model can be astonishing. For instance, we have a list of 23 different sizes that are fitted to the BMW i4 alone.
In addition, the growth of homologation is adding to the complexity. Specifying homologated tyres used to be something you only saw with high performance marques, but it’s now becoming much more common across more mainstream brands.
Fitting the right tyre is critical for the performance of all vehicles but for EVs it is especially important on a daily basis. The wrong tyre can have a significant impact in reducing a vehicle’s range, and whether its perception or reality, range remains a barrier for many people when considering whether to switch to an EV.
Fortunately, the portfolio of EV ready tyres from the premium manufacturers is ever growing and the products are improving all the time. As Kwik Fit fits more tyres to EVs than anyone else, we have a huge amount of data which we can provide customers to help them make their choices – and dispel any unfounded concerns they may have.
Another widely held belief is that EVs must go back to main dealers for servicing work. As some of the newer entrants to the market don’t have an extensive dealer network, that belief could be off-putting to potential buyers. Independent networks such as Kwik Fit do have the capability to provide that servicing support, and in many cases will be much more convenient than the nearest dealership, as well as being very price competitive.
Kwik Fit is known for its tyre expertise and trained service technicians - will this give you an advantage on the Rally? And will you be on hand to help other teams should they need it?
We’re hoping that can use our experience to give us the best preparation, but should the worst happen out on the road we know we have very strong teams right across the country who we can call on.
We absolutely will be able to help other teams should they need it. Our national network means we will always be close to a centre, and if any teams need any pre-stage checks or maintenance we will be there for them.
You're hosting a checkpoint during the Rally - what can teams expect when they get there?
The Warrington checkpoint is being held at one of the distribution hubs of our sister company Stapleton’s Tyre Services. It’s a huge facility and we are looking forward to showcasing the expertise and support from our entire parent group, European Tyre Enterprise Limited. As well as Stapletons, the group includes Murfitts, the UK’s largest tyre recycling company and we will be happy to give rally participants a tour of the recycling operations in Warrington. With sustainability a critical factor for many companies, giving our customers the confidence of knowing that their end-of-life tyres are being responsibly recycled is very important.
We are also going to be showcasing some work we are doing in trialling state of health testing for EV batteries. We know that this is a critical factor for those making decisions in the second-hand EV market. As our core ethos is to provide peace of mind motoring, we are examining how we can help provide reassurance in this area to prospective owners.
And of course, we will be happy to show rally participants around the facility. The increasing complexity of the tyre market means that having the supply chain and logistics backbone to ensure we have the right tyre in the right place at the right time is ever more important and the sheer scale of the distribution centre really highlights how we are meeting the challenge.
And naturally, we’ll have some fun and games with some chances to win some prizes as well.
Looking ahead, what are Kwik Fit’s future plans, and how is the business helping fleets progress towards their net-zero goals?
Kwik Fit has been working with our industry partners for a number of years to plan for fleet tyre replacement and SMR in the EV car parc. This means ensuring that the correct and specific tyre stock is available in advance in our distribution network and across our centres. We have also been investing in our people, with intensive training programmes to develop EV skills across the company. Obviously fleet managers need the confidence that any models they add to their fleet will have an ongoing maintenance and repair support network available in order to make them a viable choice.
Although not all EVs require specific tyres, for some popular marques the availability has been limited to the OE specification. The requirement for homologated tyres for electric vehicles has represented one of the biggest changes to the tyre replacement market in over a decade. The growth in EV ready ranges has helped in this area but we are still working hard in tandem with our customers and tyre suppliers to ensure we can meet their needs.
As the leading tyre supplier to fleets we have a huge amount of data which can help our customers in their forecasting. Forward planning for demand is key in order to maximise fleet performance and reduce costs. We will continue to utilise the strength of our network, our market leading tyre availability, distribution, and knowledge to help support fleets and their drivers, in seamlessly transitioning to electric vehicles.
