The Fast Car Finance Guide to Electric Vehicles

There’s no doubt about it, electric cars are growing in popularity and the major car manufacturers are working to combine a brilliant driving experience within the need to meet the zero emissions target. Recent statistics show that hybrid, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles have seen a huge increase in sales (23.4%), but they still only account for 1.7% of the market. Industry predictions are suggesting that the 2019 downturn will continue for both diesel and petrol vehicles, however despite this, they are both generally stable.

Is There a Growing Trend For Electric Vehicles?

The trends are encouraging, says Sue Robinson, Director of the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), which represents franchised car and commercial vehicle retailers in the UK. Commenting on the latest SMMT new passenger car registration figures in their latest news bulletin, Robinson says that both consumers and businesses need to be supported if the zero-emissions policy is to be successful. She says: “Vehicles need to be affordable, with a reliable and easy to access charging infrastructure, Government incentives and investments can help.”

What Are The Pros and Cons of Electric Vehicles?

Andy Wise, MD of Fast Car Finance said: “We are starting to see an increase in enquiries coming through for alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) and we think that this will follow as businesses will be incentivised to swap a diesel car for an electric vehicle.  Although we do a lot of supercar finance and classic car finance, we can also arrange finance for electric vehicles – as you can see from this Tesla illustration that we arranged for another happy Fast Car Finance customer.”

However, Andy shares the NFDA’s view that more needs to be done to make electric vehicles more attractive to a large number of motorists. “Many people like the idea of an electric car, but I’m often talking about the battery life – can it get people from A-B and back again? If you’re only doing short journeys then it isn’t a problem but given that the infrastructure of the charging points isn’t quite where it should be yet, this will potentially limit a number of customers.”

“In addition, the battery life is between 5-7 years, so there is an issue if you’re buying a second-hand car. Again, these are all considerations.”

Do Any Electric Vehicles Tick the Sportscar Box?

Normally, when you think ‘electric vehicles’ you immediately think Tesla which is most likely because Tesla founder Elon Musk is rarely out of the news. His marketing approach clearly works – but we will focus more on this later. However, if you’re looking for an electric sportscar, we don’t think they come any better than the Porsche Taycan.

Described in a recent Top Gear review as massively fast, great to drive, quick to charge and practical enough to use every day, it’s clear to see why these are going like hotcakes! Porsche have absolutely nailed it – 0-62 in 2.8 seconds so they will rival a petrol engine car.

Many Fast Car Finance customers have placed orders for these (they are available later this year) and we will be arranging the finance for them. We’ve had a lot of enquiries about financing for these cars – they’ve got an order in already.

What Are Other Brands Doing About Electric Vehicles?

Take a look at this article in Design News with BMW’s manager of connected e-mobility, Jan Freimann to understand why BMW are moving more into this area and what their plans are this year for the BMW X5e Plug-In Hybrid.  BMW also announced that they will cease production of the BMW i8 in April 2020, however there are rumours that a new i8 model will be launched in 2022.

Bentley also announced at last week’s ‘mock’ Geneva Motor Show that they will be launching electric cars in the next five years.

Why is Elon Musk the Poster-boy For Electric Vehicles?

Back to the matter of Mr Musk. With a minimal spend on marketing, Musk relies on promoting his vision of a reality where people across the globe can rely exclusively on renewable energy – doing this authentically is getting people to join him on his sustainability journey.

In particular, 67% of the millennial generation believe that “switching to an eco-friendly car is the best solution for a sustainable future” according to a recent Nissan survey.

What Are the Opportunities For Owning an Electric Car for My Business?

We need to be quite careful here – we’d always advise our customers to run any decisions past their accountant or tax adviser as there will be various implications if you purchase an electric vehicle through your business or personally. However, there’s a whole host of information about tax relief for electric cars – we don’t want to publish any information on our blog in case it changes, however here are a number of useful sites that you can take a look at:

• Do you need to pay tax for charging my employees vehicles?
• Capital allowance for business cars.
• There are a lot of specific benefits for purchasing a Tesla car including plug in grants, congestion charges and low emission zones.

There’s lots of information in this useful summary from the NFDA about the plans that the government has confirmed in last week’s budget – you can read the full article here. However, it’s encouraging to see that the government is committed to making sure that nobody is more than 30 miles away from a charging point and that £403 million will be provided for the for the Plug-in Car Grant, extending it to 2022-23. A further £129.5 million will be provided to extend the Plug-in Grants for vans, taxis and motorcycles to 2022-23.

We hope you’ve found this guide helpful and would love to talk to you if you’re looking at options for electric vehicle finance. Get in touch with the Fast Car Finance team on 01635 785 400 or info@fcfinance.co.uk