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Small businesses aim for greener company cars

HYBRIDS, fuel-efficient cars and even electric vehicles are all on the wish list of small businesses as part of ambitious ‘going green’ plans, says an SME report from fuel and leasing experts Arval.

The rather stuffily entitled Corporate Vehicle Observatory (CVO) report looked at SME businesses across a wide variety of countries and found a huge demand for greener vehicles, in particular hybrids

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30 November 1999

HYBRIDS, fuel-efficient cars and even electric vehicles are all on the wish list of small businesses as part of ambitious ‘going green’ plans, says an SME report from fuel and leasing experts Arval.

The rather stuffily entitled Corporate Vehicle Observatory (CVO) report looked at SME businesses across a wide variety of countries and found a huge demand for greener vehicles, in particular hybrids – the report suggests we’ll see a 13% increase of small businesses in hybrid cars by 2013.

However, only 11% of UK SMEs will car share in the next three years, says the report, compared to 41% of larger organisations and only 7% of SMEs would car pool, compared to 43% of bigger firms.

This may be down to the size of the fleet, opportunity and day-to-day practicality rather than a desire not to share, suggested Mike Waters, director of market insight at Arval.

Mr Waters added: “Small businesses want to follow a greener agenda in the future. There is however more work that needs to be done to provide effective communication to SMEs regarding the viability and operational effectiveness of alternative engine and fuel technology.

“With favourable taxation for sub 120g/km vehicles, this is not a renaissance in interest in green issues because the issue has never gone away, despite the recession. With so many companies of all sizes wanting to embrace green practices, there will be a requirement for a consistent and long-term government policy in this area.”

When it came to financing their company cars, more than 50% of those polled from the UK’s SMEs said total cost of usage was more important than monthly bills or purchase price, compared to 67% of larger organisations. Arval believes this indicates the emergence of a more holistic approach to fleet cost management across all sizes of business.

Waters said: “As we know there are still many questions to be answered in relation to alternative engine and fuel technology. However, total cost of ownership is always a good place to start when evaluating the options. Whether this is from an economic cost perspective or based on total CO2, taking a holistic view of the vehicle and its operational requirements will at least provide the key data required to make informed business mobility decisions.”

Further information

For background information you might care to read our Advice Centre article What is a hybrid?.

In addition, we have a useful insight into the benefits of assessing the overall cost of company cars to the business in this Advice Centre article Whole life costs – the true cost of business cars.

Hybrids are key to more environmentally driven company cars

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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