11:04 am, May 19, 2020
Electric vehicles saw a 750 per cent rise in new lease car registrations in the last quarter of 2019, according to new figures.
That led to an average CO2 emission figure of 113g/km for leased vehicles – 10 per cent lower than for the average newly registered car and the lowest since the third quarter of 2018 when they were 127g/km, said the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA).
EVs made up four per cent of new car lease registrations between October and December 2019 – and their contribution to the sector counteracted the 10-20 per cent rise in emissions caused by petrol and diesel vehicles that resulted from the new WLTP testing regulations.
The salary-sacrifice sector – where an employee’s entitlement to cash pay is reduced, usually in return for a non-cash benefit – led the way in battery-electric (BEV) registrations, making up 24 per cent of new car additions in the last three months of 2019. Meanwhile, BEVs made up just over six per cent of new business contract hire cars during the same period.
BVRLA chief executive Gerry Keaney said: ‘The Q4 survey was the last conducted before the impacts of Brexit, the March 2020 Budget, the April 2020 tax changes and the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘It will be fascinating to see the effect that these huge external factors will have on the shape of the leasing market and the speed of transition to zero-emission road transport.’
The BVRLA also reported that the lease car fleet shrank year on year by nearly three per cent overall, with a 7.3 per cent increase in consumer contracts failing to offset a 5.4 per cent fall in business leasing.
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