EVs form record proportion of fleet vehicles added to 1link
Electric vehicles (EVs) formed a record proportion of fleet cars and vans added to epyx’s 1link Service Network during August, the company is reporting.
In total, 35.29% of vehicles registered onto the industry standard service, maintenance and repair (SMR) platform were electric, compared to 25.59% a year ago. An increase for hybrid registrations was also seen at 17.53%% against 14.82% in August 2023.
There were corresponding falls for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles – with petrol representing just 29.87% of registrations in August against 39.90% a year ago, and diesel at 17.30% compared to 19.69%.
1link Service Network is used by fleets totalling more than four million vehicles to manage their SMR processes, so provides a unique view of progress towards electrification, explained Tim Meadows, CCO at epyx.
“Data covering fleet registrations is available from a variety of credible sources, notably the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, but our information shows something slightly different – the vehicles added by fleets to our platform, which is almost uniformly used by major leasing fleets to manage their SMR.
“Essentially, when a leasing company buys a vehicle and delivers it to the customer, part of their process is to register it to 1link Service Network, ready for when it needs future servicing, repairs or other maintenance.
“What our figures show for August is that more EVs have been added to the platform as a proportion than in any month so far. It almost certainly means that more fleet end users who leased a new vehicle last month chose electric than ever before.”
Tim said that the figures were interesting given widespread antipathy in the mainstream media towards EVs.
“From some of the coverage, you might think that electrification is failing and it would only be accurate to acknowledge that there are apparent issues around customer enthusiasm for both retail sales and electric vans.
“However, what we have been seeing over a long period of time on 1link Service Network is very rapid adoption for EVs as a general fleet category. It’s worth noting that in January 2020, EVs represented just 2.09% of registrations added to the platform but last month was the single largest form of power chosen by the fleets using 1link Service Network.”