The ongoing slump in used electric car values could lead to higher lease costs and affect demand from company car fleets if incentives to stabilise the market are not brought in soon, warns the Association of Fleet Professionals . Tax breaks for electric cars, coupled with businesses’ own sustainability targets, have led to a resurgence in company car schemes since 2020.
That will naturally start to be pushed into the lease costs to make sure they don’t experience the burn on the new fleet that they’re starting to put out.” The BVRLA has raised similar issues, claiming limited historical data for EVs makes forecasting residual values challenging. Those values are used to calculate monthly rentals – a vehicle that depreciates quickly will typically be pricier to lease than one that retains more of its original value at the end of its contract.