Car and van subscription provider Mycardirect is covering the cost of a home charger for contracts lasting more than 12 months as tax-stimulated demand from small businesses pushes EVs towards a one-third share of its fleet.
Developed in partnership with charger subscription company Egg, the package is designed to reduce both financial barriers and complexity for new EV drivers after the government's Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) withdrew grant funding for home-owners installing chargers in single-occupant houses and bungalows in April.
Mycardirect offers maintenance-inclusive subscriptions from one to 48 months from an in-stock fleet of new and used cars and vans up to three years old. Contracts of 12 months or more will include an Egg charger subscription at no extra cost, including installation and maintenance but kept separate from the vehicle, which means drivers can still change between models mid-contract.
Mycardirect CEO Duncan Chumley said this flexibility had been popular with business customers, who account for a third of its fleet.
That’s particularly the case for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), for which the ability to add vehicles for new employees without the longer-term commitment of a three or four-year lease has proved desirable.
It has also encouraged businesses to trial EVs, which now account for 28% of the Mycardirect fleet – twice the share of UK new car registrations during the first five months of 2022, according to Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) data.
EV demand is weighted towards directors and business-owners and premium-brand vehicles, where renewed tax incentives have made electric company cars cheaper than taking a cash allowance and claiming HMRC’s 45p per mile Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) rate. It’s why cars like the Porsche Taycan have proved more popular than traditional ICE models.
Aiming for further growth of its EV share, Mycardirect is adding a wider selection of volume-brand cars.
Chumley said having vehicles in stock means there are opportunities to fill gaps while lead times for factory order cars are longer than usual.
“We’re seeing more businesses looking at [subscription], because maybe the traditional routes aren’t available so easily at the moment. Then we can talk to the customer about the benefits of subscription and hope they continue in that route. It has opened an opportunity, because people are looking at other ways that they can put a new car on their drive,” he explained.
“[Chargepoint subscriptions are] one less barrier financially to entry into the EV market. We hope that as we get more of the ‘volume’ cars, even more people can enter into this space without huge financial commitments.”
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