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The total number of company car benefit recipients stabilised in the 2021-22 tax year, according to newly-released figures from HMRC.
It said the number had remained at 720,000, the same level as in the previous year, having previously seen a steady decline from the 960,000 seen in 2015-16.
HMRC said that the stabilisation in 2021-22 may have been influenced by an exacerbated drop in the previous tax year, due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It has also caveated the data by citing internal evidence that a substantial number of company car benefits were not correctly reported to HMRC in recent tax years, which it said suggested that the 720,000 figure underestimated the true number of company car recipients.
Despite the reported number of company cars remaining steady, the associated taxable value of company car benefit came down from £4.62 billion in the previous tax year to £3.95 billion, which HMRC suggested was due to the increase in electric company cars, which incur very low BIK rates.
The data also shows an improvement in company car fleet CO2 emissions, said to have come down from 99g/km in the previous tax year to 86g/km, amid the aforementioned increased take-up of EVs, which are now driven by 17% of company car benefit recipients - a major increase from the 7% seen in 2020-21. When only cars with internal combustion engines were counted, the CO2 average was 103g/km.
The number of reported recipients of company cars with CO2 emissions of 75g/km or less was 34%, up from around 19% in the previous tax year.
Only 2% of company cars had reported CO2 emissions in excess of 165g/km, compared with 58% in 2002-03.
Although diesel cars generally now account for fewer than 5% of overall new car registrations in any given month, they still made up just over a third of the company car fleet in 2021-22, at 35%. However, this was still a major fall from the 79% market share the fuel had just five years earlier, and a high point of 82% in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Petrol cars accounted for 48%, compared with 21% in 2016-17 (both petrol and diesel figures include hybrids).
HMRC has also issued stats on fuel benefit recipients, which it said had declined from 60,000 to 50,000. It suggested this was also partly due to the rise in EV adoption.
Among the other data to have been issued is a regional breakdown of company car benefit recipients. The highest number of these was to be found in South East England, with around 105,000, ahead of North West England, with around 90,000, and West Midlands and East of England, both with around 75,000. The region with the lowest number of recipients was Northern Ireland, with around 10,000.
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