The BVRLA leasing fleet has returned to levels last seen in 2018, despite growing concerns over used electric vehicle values in a consistently volatile market.

The report reveals rising fleet demand and improving vehicle supply but shows concern for EV residual values

That’s according to the BVRLA’s latest Leasing Outlook Report, which quantifies the sector’s transition to electric models.

An overall increase of 2% for the leasing fleet demonstrates that vehicle availability continues to improve. Van growth (2.4% up) is outperforming that of cars despite seeing less of a recovery in vehicle lead times. Having reached its nadir during the pandemic in Q1 2021, the BVRLA leasing fleet size has grown year on year. The recent growth has seen it reach its highest volume in half a decade, although the gap between business and personal demand is widening.

“The sector is again demonstrating its ability to adapt to changing market conditions to meet customer needs. Achieving growth in a turbulent market is no easy feat. The direction of travel towards electric vehicles is one way, with business users and company-provided vehicles leading the charge,” said BVRLA director of corporate affairs, Toby Poston.

“Business customers benefit from fair taxation and incentives that aren’t replicated in the private market. This is pushing more private customers towards used electric vehicles, where growth of supply is vastly outpacing that of demand. The impact of the Prime Minister’s decision to push back the ICE phase-out date is yet to be seen, but it is crucial that customer confidence in EVs is improved if the used EV market is to succeed.”

The report also reveals a growing gap between business and private contract hire (BCH/PCH). BCH has grown 4.4% year on year, supported by high electric vehicle uptake from salary sacrifice, which is up 55%. In Q2 2023, seven in 10 fleet additions via BCH were for plug-in vehicles (48% EV, 22% plug-in hybrid).

Conversely, the personal sector has seen an 8.4% decline – the result of household budgets being squeezed by cost-price inflation and increasing energy bills. While this is impacting vehicles of all fuel types, the decline is particularly causing EV uptake among private drivers to stall. Only 17% of PCH additions in Q2 2023 were for battery electric vehicles, with a further 5% for plug-in hybrids.

This in turn is pushing more private drivers to turn to the used market, either via private sales or through one of the increasingly prevalent used vehicle leasing schemes.

There are now over 20,000 used vehicles being operated within the BVRLA leasing fleet, with more salary sacrifice schemes emerging that are offering used electric vehicles to provide drivers an affordable route into zero-emission motoring.

The full BVRLA Leasing Outlook report, which includes analysis from Fleet Assist, Auto Trader and Cap HPI, is available here.