It looks like a Golf. It drives like a Golf. It sounds like… well it doesn’t sound of very much.
The impressive albeit slightly unnerving electric Golf joined the Car-E-Lease team recently for their Leigh Business Expo demo.
Big thanks to our local VW and Seat Supplier, Sytner Warrington, for continuing to work with our team. In particular, they have been supplying extra support for our local customers.
For any personal or business customers Warrington, Wigan or St Helens-based wanting to lease a VW/Seat, just speak to our team here and we will work in conjunction with this leading local supplier.
Both businesses will ensure online pricing but with that local personal service. To be clear, the cheapest car deal is not always the best car deal.
My business wants an electric car – are they all expensive? Does my business get automatically approved? do I still have to pay any company car tax?
All of these are very good questions and the sheer volume of press both in the national publications and the automotive trade press is saying to all road users to consider anything alternative – hybrid (self-regenerating), PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle with a petrol or diesel engine) or pure electric (literally no engine at all!).
For the savy company car user, they will have noted that in April 2020 HMRC are making some significant Benefit in Kind (BiK) changes.
The key points to note are:
· A zero emitting car will attract a 2% BiK rate;
· A car emitting CO2 between 1-50g/km and with a 130mile+ electric range or more will attract a 2% BiK rate;
· A car emitting CO2 between 1-50g/km and with a 70-129 mile electric range will attract a 5% BiK rate;
· A car emitting CO2 between 1-50g/km and with a 40-69 mile electric range will attract an 8% BiK rate;
· A car emitting CO2 between 1-50g/km and with a 30-39 mile electric range will attract an 12% BiK rate; and
· A car emitting CO2 between 1-50g/km and with a sub 30 miles electric range will attract an 14% BiK rate.
For the individual company car driver, using a purely electric vehicle is going to offer massive cost-savings on their company car tax bill. A the taxation is based around the P11d value of the vehicle, the individual’s income tax bracket and the BiK banding, the lower CO2 models, in particular the purely electric vehicles offer considerable tax savings.
Just taking the E-Golf as an example, for a 40% tax payer, this car would cost circa £180 per month in tax based on the 2019/20 tax regulations. However, from 2020/21 the same car would cost in the region of £25 per month.
So while an electric car is not “free” from company car tax, it almost certainly offers some considerable tax savings.
I like the sound of the tax savings but is the car going to cost my business more? The conflict between what is right for the business and what is right for the driver is always a tough compromise.
The onset of alternative fuels is making many fleets re-consider their car policies and the training they offer to their employees.
Using a hybrid, PHEV or electric vehicle brings about different considerations and driving behaviours – is the driver’s annual mileage suitable? Doers the business have charge points on premises? Do individual drivers have charge points? To assist both the driver and business we have some fairly simple guides on each fuel choice and some the practical points to consider. Just click the following link for more information – https://www.carlease.uk.com/car-e
Electric alternatives are generally more expensive than the combustion alternatives. Battery technology is still relatively new and economies of scale with these vehicle is still developing. That being said, the disparity between combustion and alternative has undergone massive improvements; not every electric vehicle is a £60,000+ Tesla! Taking the e-Golf here, yes this will be more expensive on a rental cost than a 1.6 diesel or 1.5 petrol platform but the difference is not particularly great or eye-watering. In particular if you considered the potential savings on fuel.
More and more cost-effective electric vehicles are being manufactured – Kia eNrio, Hyundai Kona electric, Peugeot e208, Vauxhall eCorsa… the list is becoming somewhat endless.
To add to this, auction prices remain strong on electric vehicles and so residual values are very competitive with our finance companies. It is no longer true to say these are un-affordable vehicles.
So can my business automatically lease an electric vehicle? Like any car (or van) every business must undertake some form of credit and underwriting process. For any business with less than two years’ worth of accounts you are considered as a new company and must therefore go through some stricter processed including providing a director guarantee, latest managements accounts and an enhanced initial rental of 9 spread or more.
So what information do we ask for? As a credit broker and not a lender, in order to engage our broking services you will initially be asked to submit personal information about yourself and/or the company to proceed.
This will include:
· If you are not a director, your full name and job details;
· Company name;
· Company number and date established;
· The company landline number;
· An email address;
· In some cases, your full address (and for any addresses you have resided in over the last 5 years) – house number, street, postcode, city and region;
· The company address as per the above;
· Full director details which will replicate the information above;
· Bank Details – including your bank name, account name, account number, sort code and date the account was opened;
· Business income and expenditure – this is required as part of affordability reviews which will include annual turnover, annual cost of sales and annual expenses; and
· Original documentation – as a credit broker we work alongside a number of finance companies. In some cases original driving licences, passports and bank statements are required. CLUK cannot protect against the risks involved in sending original documentation and therefore this is carried out at your own risk.
If a director has bad-credit, will this affect the application? Some finance companies will look at both the company and the individual directors. This means that in addition to ensuring your company accounts and management accounts are up to date, you or the directors need to check your personal credit with a credit reference agency like Experian or Equifax.
Some companies believe that a director with poor credit will influence the success of a company.
For any new start/low profit businesses, a director offering a personal guarantee MUST have strong credit anyway.
A final obvious point – ensure you complete the proposal form correctly. Any mistakes or incorrect information could lead to underwriting delays or the application being declined.
In terms of the car shown here, the Volkswagen GOLF HATCHBACK 99kW e-Golf 35kWh 5dr Auto (Pure Electric), this is based on the following configuration:
· Pure white Special solid paint
· Merlin cloth – Titan black
· 16″ Tilleve alloy wheels with anti-theft wheel bolts
As standard the car includes discover navigation with an 8” colour screen, 8 speakers, lumbar support for driver and passenger seat, front and rear parking sensors, green tinted heated insulating glass, LED headlights, windscreen wipers with intermittent display, post collision braking system, ESC with electronic differential lock, Bluetooth, adaptive cruise control, stop/start system, e-Golf instrument cluster, body coloured externals, electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors, driver alert and profile systems, battery regeneration during braking, DAB, 3D-LED lights, LED daytime running lights, three spoke multifunction steering, two charging cables (1x 16amp/1x10amp), 60/40 split folding seats, 16” alloys, tyre repair kit and an alarm/immobiliser/central locking. In terms of additional specification consider adding – rear tinted glass, winter pack and the ambient lighting pack.
On the technical side, company car and business users can note the CO2 at 0g/km (2% BiK!!) and the P11d at £34,380.00. The 1 speed auto 35kWh lithium-ion battery delivers circa 144 miles on a full charge, 135ps and 0-62 times of 9.6 seconds. Service intervals are every 24 months or 10,000 miles. In terms of charging times, VW suggest 0-80% should take circa 45 minutes on a rapid charge point and should cost no more than £5 to fully charge at home.
So would you select the e-Golf as your next electric car leasing option? Or would the equally affordable Hyundai Ioniq, Renault Zoe or Kia eNiro be your choice?
Find the best lease deals online for the eGolf @CarLease UK or read more electric car lease deals below…
