Beattie believes that the Dolphin Surf being the new kid on the block is exciting, and a real opportunity in fleet.
He said: “I think from a list price, it’s really competitive, which makes it compelling. In terms of fleet, we’ve done an incredible job with the Seal and Sealion. Dolphin is doing a good job.
“How big is the fleet market for an A-segment car? Or an A+ segment car, or an A/B-segment car? I think it’s going to be interesting to see what it can do in salary sacrifice, I think it has got a real opportunity, looking at the leasing rates, the residual values are looking okay in terms of where it’s going to come out, so I think it should be a winner in lower-level salary sacrifice.
“I think what we’ve also got to do is look at bodyshop vehicles – there’s still an element of public sector job-need, because it’s a big car. In the back, there’s plenty of space and a decent size boot. It would be great to get some job-need fleet. Who knows where we might end up, as the Dolphin Surf is quite funky, the colours look cool, there are a few of the small job-need fleets, that are quite quirky and iconic, running around London – it would be cool to get something in there. I guess we will have to see.”
Asked if he believed the Dolphin Surf was more of a retail proposition than fleet, Beattie said: “If I looked at the volume, I’d think I’m going to do 60% of the volume in retail. What’s interesting is, from a powertrain perspective, fleet is electric, whereas a retail powertrain is ICE, or maybe plug-in hybrid. But these are small segment cars, fleet is normally bigger segment cars.
“So, what is interesting with the Dolphin Surf, with a fleet powertrain, and a retail body – where does that car fit? I think we’ve got a really good opportunity to not only do a great job in retail, but to open the small car market in terms of fleet purpose.
“It is early days for fleet interest – we only launched in Europe three weeks ago, and generally there’s a much longer time for right-hand drive cars. So, it’s all very new, because it was available in all countries at the same time.”
The mid-range Boost spec is expected to be the most popular for the Dolphin Surf, Beattie tells us.
He said: “Boost is just £21,995, and it has got the 200-mile combined range battery – for me that is the model that will work well.
“Interestingly in fleet with BYD, we tend to sell a lot of the higher trim levels. For Sealion and Seal, Excellence – our highest trim level – is really, really popular. The strong residual value with that car, gives you a really, really good rental. So, it could be interesting to see how Comfort will come out.
“What we want to do is try and be in every segment. What that really means is, that ultimately in terms of who can be in Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, and Grade 5. We want a mix of BYD models across a fleet policy – and the Dolphin Surf gives us the chance to get into those early grades, which are tough to get into, because of the costs for fleets – they’re not getting any cheaper are they? We’re trying to keep those lower payments, and to be able to offer this electric car is a good thing.”
On top of advertising, including a TV ad, Beattie told us BYD had done some work with Tusker, and Octopus Electric Vehicles.
He said: “They’re almost ready to go with their salary sacrifice offering, straight away on that car.
“We’ve got 40 on our corporate test fleet – we’ve gone big straight away! So, fleets can call our corporate team, and we’ll get them straight out to them.”
Asked how the Dolphin Surf fits in with his fleet plans for the rest of this year, Beattie said: “We know this car goes into segments we’re not currently in – public sector is going to be really big for this car, and we’ve got a really strong public sector team. It will be interesting as well, to see what we can do from a driving school perspective.
“We also need to work closely with the accident management companies, because they are still very hesitant about taking electric cars, because of customers being used to ICE, but if they don’t do more than 200 miles in it, they will be fine. Maybe car clubs in London, too?
“This is really helping us in our growth. I went to the network in December last year, and said we were going to sell 50-60,000 cars this year, and they looked at me wide-eyed! The first milestone was in Q1, when we sold more than we did in the whole of last year. The next big milestone is that I’d like to get to 20,000 cars in six months. I’m not sure we can do it, we’ll have to wait and see, it’s still a bit of a stretch, we’re at 14,800, as of the end of May – we’ll see how quickly this car takes off. Then, the next milestone is in September. We’ve got a big number in September – I want to do double figures!
“We’ve got 75 dealers now, we will have 120 by the end of the year, and actually we should have 90 by September – these are in-build and going through conversion, so we’re well on track for that number.
“We’re starting to look at local fleet business, in terms of SME and programmes. It is one of those things that we want to push, but at the moment it’s about getting the dealers open, getting people coming in – that’s a job for next year!”
