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Leaseplan: Fleets learn about EVs but don't buy

Date: 06 November 2012   |   Author:

The fleet market is looking to learn about electric vehicles, but actual take-up is still so slow that no more than one-in-50 new car sales could be electric by 2020, according to leasing giant Leaseplan.

"There is a hunger for knowledge. We do our own brochures and provide quite a lot of advice; we get a lot of calls and requests for information so it's not that people don't want to know," Leaseplan UK strategy director Ian Marson told BusinessCar.

"People actively want to make that shift and move away from the internal combustion engine if they thought they were able to, and in many cases they're willing to pay for it, but people's tolerances only go so far."

Just 0.11% of Leaseplan's registrations this year have been EVs, although that's up from 0.01% in 2011.

"The market is interested in learning, and EVs offer an interesting way of doing things, but you need to change the way you operate. It will be very slow-burn," Marson said.

"My gut feeling is that I'd be very surprised if by 2020 more than 2% is new propulsion. I can't see it happening faster than that.

"There doesn't seem to be the desire and inclination for Government to push these vehicles, and the BIK change [coming in 2015] will slow adoption - the reasons to do it have become one less and the cost case has weakened."

Marson said fleets have taken on one or two EVs to understand the way they work, the costs and how they have to change the way their business operates.

"Fleet managers are not an impulsive bunch: we don't see them making rash decisions with something new and with EVs you have to change the way the fleet operates," he said. "They don't want to change their business unless it's compelling."

Marson feels the financial sacrifice for EVs is still too severe, and Government isn't helping. "The customer isn't particularly interested, and isn't certain of the incentives," he said, pointing the finger at what he called the "Mexican stand-off" between manufacturers calling for Government to give more financial help to the fledgling technology and Government feeling manufacturers need to bring the purchase prices down to more viable levels.

"Customers would love to have greener propulsion but don't want to pay for it," said Marson, referencing research commissioned by Leaseplan that found even with the £5000 Government grant, electric vehicles still work out at £5000-£10,000 more expensive to run.

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