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Almost half of Arval's own company car fleet now electric
Date: 08 September 2020 | Author: Sean Keywood
Leasing firm Arval UK says nearly half of its internal company car drivers have now switched to EVs, since a scheme to encourage their take-up was launched in May.
Arval, which operates just over 200 cars on its internal fleet, offered employees free use of more than 40 chargers at its head office in Swindon, and also allowed them to have a home charger installed at what it describes as a competitive price.
Under the scheme, drivers can switch to an EV if their current vehicle is more than 18 months old.
So far, 98 out of 203 drivers have switched.
Arval UK HR director Ailsa Firth said: "One of the key areas we focused on was driver education by making sure we shared key information to help people make an informed decision.
"This approach has supported widespread adoption of EVs at all levels within the company. I now drive an EV - and the broader uptake is extremely encouraging."
Firth said that Arval had taken into account factors such as cost, choice and CSR when creating its scheme, which is said to cover the vast majority of EVs currently available on the market.
She said: "Much work has gone into the structure of these choice lists, as well as ensuring that other key factors that make up our company car scheme, such as cash allowances, whole life cost allowances and whole life methodology, are incorporated into our latest thinking.
"Especially, with the 0% benefit-in-kind taxation rate in effect for the 2020-21 tax year, we expect EV uptake among employees to continue to be very high."
Arval has also made changes to its Ignition salary sacrifice scheme, with the aim of ensuring all employees can access EVs and low-emission vehicles at attractive monthly rates, regardless of grade or benefit package.
Firth said: "For a 40% taxpayer, we can provide an electric hatchback at around half what they would expect to pay otherwise.
"Salary sacrifice schemes make a lot of sense at the moment and take-up has been high."
