The numbers come from the company’s 1link Service Network platform, which fleets totalling 4 million vehicles use to buy and manage service, maintenance and repair (SMR) from about 9,000 franchise dealers, independent garages and fast-fits.
The 14% figure covers the six month period from April to September of this year and compares to 9% from between October 2019 and March 2020, and 5% from April 2019 to September 2019.
Debbie Fox, commercial director at Epyx, said because of the quantity of fleet vehicles that use the 1link Service Network, the figure is a good indication of how electrified fleets in the UK have become overall.
“It shows that roughly one in seven cars and vans now operated by UK companies is either a hybrid or full electric vehicle, which illustrates how they are becoming an everyday part of transport for businesses”, she added.
“Especially noteworthy is the speed of adoption. We have gone from 5% at this point last year through to 14% today, no doubt powered largely by both the increased availability of electrified vehicles and the 0% benefit in kind company car taxation rate.”
Epyx plans to run the same reports every six months.
Fox added that the business was, in common with much of the rest of the fleet sector, developing its understanding about SMR for hybrid and battery electric vehicles.
She said: “The government’s recent announcement regarding banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030 has created an immoveable target date for all fleets to get up to speed in this important area, and one that is rapidly approaching.
“What this means is that everyone is learning about the real world operation of these vehicles in real time, which is both exciting and challenging.
“We are increasing our knowledge quite quickly but very few fleet EVs have yet gone through a single replacement cycle, so there remains quite a lot to learn.”
