One of the latest arguments against electric cars, at least in the UK, is that they aren’t selling well because they are only being purchased by fleet customers. Industry data in 2023 showed that. However, this could be a misunderstanding of the sales figures. It’s certainly being used to downplay an EV market that in reality is going from strength to strength – and about to enter a new phase.
You do still pay some tax for the use of the company car because it is considered a “Benefit in Kind” . This tax is a percentage of the new price of the vehicle you get to use as a perk from your company . A few years ago, the percentage was zero for an EV, and it’s still only 2% per year for 2023-24 and 2024-25. The rate will then rise 1% per year until 2027-28, when it will reach 5%.But rates are much higher for fossil fuel cars.
In other words, people aren’t disinterested in buying BEVs. They’re just generally smart enough to buy them via the most cost-effective route – salary sacrifice. Whether or not EVs have been selling for personal or fleet driver use, the dramatic upswing in sales since 2019 is now starting to result in another important development that means the beginning of the end for internal combustion – the growth in secondhand sales.
Most leases are for 3 or 4 years, and that’s also a typical timeframe of ownership for new cars even when not leased. Arguably, the current era of more affordable, general-purpose BEVs arrived with the Tesla Model 3 in 2018/2019, and then a whole slew of non-Tesla models arrived in 2020 and 2021. Those cars began to hit three or four years old last year, and the volume will be arriving in earnest this year and next.Another regular criticism of BEVs is that they are too expensive.