Fleet Alliance reports strong uptake in EV salary sacrifice

Increasing numbers of businesses are adding the employee benefit of leasing an EV through a salary sacrifice scheme to take advantage of generous BIK tax rates while reducing their carbon footprint. So says leasing and fleet management specialist, Fleet Alliance, which is reporting strong uptake of its salary sacrifice scheme.

Since the start of this year, dozens of companies have taken advantage of the Fleet Alliance salary sacrifice scheme, which is aimed primarily at SMEs but which is available to businesses of all sizes.

A typical example is Glasgow-based full-service property, data services and energy provider, HFD, which has introduced a salary scheme with Fleet Alliance for all 135 of its employees.

HFD, which has six operating divisions and is widely seen as one of Scotland’s leading commercial property companies, has delivered over £1bn worth of office space in gross development value in the last 30 years with net zero carbon emissions.

The Group previously operated a company car scheme for mainly senior managers along with light commercial vehicles for operational staff.

While the vans remain as before, the company cars have now mostly been replaced by a salary sacrifice scheme as a wider benefit for all employees. Those employees who previously qualified for a company car now receive a cash allowance to select their own vehicles, although this may be phased out over time.

Finance director Stuart Teape said: “A salary sacrifice scheme that promotes and delivers electric cars is very much in line with our carbon neutrality policy, while we also see it as an additional benefit for our employees.

“Following internet research, we appointed Fleet Alliance as our salary sacrifice scheme provider and the scheme has been working very well so far with increasing uptake amongst our staff. I, myself, have switched from a diesel to a BMW i4, which has a range of 230 miles, with no problem.”

Stuart Teape continued: “One distinct advantage of the Fleet Alliance scheme was that it provides a home charger for all employees who opt for an electric car as part of the monthly cost. At the same time, the process of setting up the scheme was simple and straightforward.

“I think a barrier to introducing these kinds of benefits is usually the set-up time required and, in our case, it was minimal.  Fleet Alliance engages directly with all our employees, so I don’t have to,” he said.

In terms of communicating the scheme and its benefits to HFD employees, Fleet Alliance provides marketing collateral via email to all staff, along with a drop-box containing intranet documents and templates for HFD to promote the scheme internally through the various channels it employs.

Fleet Alliance CEO Andy Bruce said the success of the HFD scheme was typical of that seen by the many businesses of all sizes that were signing up for Fleet Alliance salary sacrifice.

^“Our scheme delivers monthly savings of hundreds of pounds for employees who select electric cars, taking advantage of tax rates for EVs of just 2% until the end of 2024/25.

“We build further on those savings by using a panel of up to nine funders to ensure both our clients and their employees always receive the lowest rental rate available in the market.”

Mr Bruce continued: “While our scheme delivers an iron-clad benefit for all employees, it also provides an excellent opportunity to reduce a business’s collective carbon footprint by steering employees into zero emission vehicles.

“When many employees have witnessed a cost of living squeeze but continue to be concerned about global warming and the impact on the environment, there has never been a better time to switch to a brand-new all-electric car through a salary sacrifice scheme,” he said.