Company car list just gone 100% electric
Discussion
What do you guys do that provides a company car? I worked in sales from 1997 to 2005 and had a car allowance, but I've never been in a job where there was a company car. I was under the impression that not many people had a company car these days unless they did mega mileage. I work from home and there's no car included at all. The company will pay for trains, planes, car rental or private mileage as necessary, but I don't really own a car modern enough or cheap enough I'd want to do business mileage on. 95% of my business travel is by plane though 
Edited by LunarOne on Tuesday 27th February 22:33
RayDonovan said:
We're probably one of the only private companies in the UK where you can still order a diesel on the company car list.
No hybrids, no EVs.
Strange enough is the fact that we're one of the most ethical and green companies in the World (accredited with that fact) for raw material sourcing and production techniques.
Strange old World, we only make €3bn net profit in 22/23..
That must hit the staff hard in the wallet ?No hybrids, no EVs.
Strange enough is the fact that we're one of the most ethical and green companies in the World (accredited with that fact) for raw material sourcing and production techniques.
Strange old World, we only make €3bn net profit in 22/23..
James6112 said:
RayDonovan said:
We're probably one of the only private companies in the UK where you can still order a diesel on the company car list.
No hybrids, no EVs.
Strange enough is the fact that we're one of the most ethical and green companies in the World (accredited with that fact) for raw material sourcing and production techniques.
Strange old World, we only make €3bn net profit in 22/23..
That must hit the staff hard in the wallet ?No hybrids, no EVs.
Strange enough is the fact that we're one of the most ethical and green companies in the World (accredited with that fact) for raw material sourcing and production techniques.
Strange old World, we only make €3bn net profit in 22/23..
Used to do 40k per year so the company car was a decent option but I'm closer to 15k now and can run a EV and save a fortune on tax and fuel costs...
James6112 said:
RayDonovan said:
We're probably one of the only private companies in the UK where you can still order a diesel on the company car list.
No hybrids, no EVs.
Strange enough is the fact that we're one of the most ethical and green companies in the World (accredited with that fact) for raw material sourcing and production techniques.
Strange old World, we only make €3bn net profit in 22/23..
That must hit the staff hard in the wallet ?No hybrids, no EVs.
Strange enough is the fact that we're one of the most ethical and green companies in the World (accredited with that fact) for raw material sourcing and production techniques.
Strange old World, we only make €3bn net profit in 22/23..
Just buy a diesel privately and bill back miles, which actually does normally make a decent side-income, providing you buy a cheap and efficient diesel - which isn't all that appealing as a proposition for the average PH'er!
ninepoint2 said:
OP is there an option to take a "cash" allowance instead? if so buy a decent ICE car instead would be my advice
Opt out was already restricted to EV or hybrid - not sure if the EV-only angle has been extended to cover that too. It doesn’t bother me as I’ve gone EV anyway and wouldn’t want to go back, but I was surprised they’d gone all in already.
plfrench said:
Opt out was already restricted to EV or hybrid - not sure if the EV-only angle has been extended to cover that too.
It doesn’t bother me as I’ve gone EV anyway and wouldn’t want to go back, but I was surprised they’d gone all in already.
Might it be that the scheme supplier is simply not bothering with ICE anymore? The manufacturers all want to push EV to get their emissions credits sorted so will offer big discounts for bulk orders and most companies (employees chiefly) don't want ICE as they make no sense from a tax perspective.It doesn’t bother me as I’ve gone EV anyway and wouldn’t want to go back, but I was surprised they’d gone all in already.
There is a lot aligned to make it somewhat pointless to continue listing ICE cars, even if your own company doesn't have a specific opinion on it right now.
Our company goes full EV in 2025, but already the incentives are there to switch to the darkside. The prices on our scheme for EV vs ICE are significantly favorable to EV.
You can get a MG4 xpower for around a tenner a month. The Tesla Model 3 & Y are ~250 a month, a 3 series PHEV is £450 a month. Merc and VAG ev's are well priced.
Ive no issue going EV tbh, but i can charge at home, all my public charging is for work, which will be covered.
You can get a MG4 xpower for around a tenner a month. The Tesla Model 3 & Y are ~250 a month, a 3 series PHEV is £450 a month. Merc and VAG ev's are well priced.
Ive no issue going EV tbh, but i can charge at home, all my public charging is for work, which will be covered.
the BIK incentive to push company car drivers into EV's are just crazy.
Im in a hire car for my probation period of my new job at the moment. They dropped it off saturday - a nearly new Mercedes CLA180, 1.4 Petrol. Nice spec. Not so nice on BIK - £475 a month. I politely said it needs to be changed to something more easier on the tax, so i have an MG4 Trophy Long Range being swapped over for the CLA tonight. which is ... £20 a month. Not my cuppa tea what so ever but £20 a month for a brand new EV thats taxed, insured and maintained - how can you argue with it. I imagine it wont be a patch on the Tesla Model 3 i gave back to my previous employer last week though.
Would much prefer the car allowance, but the company require your personal car meet strict parameters. im very on the fence about buying my own hybrid let alone an ev which strikes me as financial suicide looking at the current market so i've ruled out the cash allowance for now. and there is no current live company car list to order from either. Frustrating really.
Im in a hire car for my probation period of my new job at the moment. They dropped it off saturday - a nearly new Mercedes CLA180, 1.4 Petrol. Nice spec. Not so nice on BIK - £475 a month. I politely said it needs to be changed to something more easier on the tax, so i have an MG4 Trophy Long Range being swapped over for the CLA tonight. which is ... £20 a month. Not my cuppa tea what so ever but £20 a month for a brand new EV thats taxed, insured and maintained - how can you argue with it. I imagine it wont be a patch on the Tesla Model 3 i gave back to my previous employer last week though.
Would much prefer the car allowance, but the company require your personal car meet strict parameters. im very on the fence about buying my own hybrid let alone an ev which strikes me as financial suicide looking at the current market so i've ruled out the cash allowance for now. and there is no current live company car list to order from either. Frustrating really.
The arrival of my new company EV is any week now. I'm not looking forward to it and even though I can order what I want (ordered an i4 M50), I just think of the savings in BIK and Fuel as I can charge at work for free.
Those monthly savings are now going into a nice V8 for the weekend, to reset my carbon footprint!
Those monthly savings are now going into a nice V8 for the weekend, to reset my carbon footprint!
LunarOne said:
What do you guys do that provides a company car? I worked in sales from 1997 to 2005 and had a car allowance, but I've never been in a job where there was a company car. I was under the impression that not many people had a company car these days unless they did mega mileage. I work from home and there's no car included at all. The company will pay for trains, planes, car rental or private mileage as necessary, but I don't really own a car modern enough or cheap enough I'd want to do business mileage on. 95% of my business travel is by plane though
My employer is 100% electric and currently converting its fleet. Im probably not usually entittled to a company car but was taken on with a car allowance (which I prefer) but as the pay award last year was so abysmal, i decided to take advantage of there been a CC instead of cash allowance - plus the cash allowance was supposed to get a car under x amount of years old, less then x miles and be zero emissions - not a hope for the pawltry cash allowance i had.Edited by LunarOne on Tuesday 27th February 22:33
And cash allowances are just a tax fiddle anyway.
So my EV is due to be delivered in a couple of months - and I only do about 500 business miles year, rest is commuting every week to the local office at my cost and the rest to the mothership now and again.
Maybe one day they penny will drop and realise I maybe shouldnt be a candidate for a CC but until then, ill take it - will be costing less in BIK than my current cars insurance.
stumpage said:
The arrival of my new company EV is any week now. I'm not looking forward to it and even though I can order what I want (ordered an i4 M50), I just think of the savings in BIK and Fuel as I can charge at work for free.
Those monthly savings are now going into a nice V8 for the weekend, to reset my carbon footprint!
That's what I went for this time - the M50. I'm not sure why they felt it appropriate to stick an M badge on it, unbelievably it's an 'actual' M car too (It was developed by M-division), despite being too soft for it's weight and having deliberately low steering feedback, it's just not an M car.. It is, however, a superb performance GT car and mile muncher, also far more comfortable than you'd expect in softer driving modes and extremely practical.Those monthly savings are now going into a nice V8 for the weekend, to reset my carbon footprint!
Hope you enjoy it - and if you're not in a hurry to get anywhere quickly, you can take the V8 and pay 12 times as much in fuel
I was a home-based field engineer for a multinational IT company. When BIK started to get a bit silly, they found a loophole - car ownership scheme.
I was paying about £50 a month for my last company car (Mazda 6) in 2008. I had a "reimburse" fuel card, so no tax liability there.
I was doing 45k miles a year, so taking the car allowance + 13p a mile option wouldn't work.
Not sure an EV would work if I was still doing that job. Some days I would do 400+ miles. I was on call, so might have to go out during the night before the car had recharged.
Having to pay £400 or whatever BIK on an ICE car that's used 95% for an employer would be a killer.
Last I heard, some of my ex-colleagues were opting for small company vans to minimise the BIK hit.
These are £30/35k a year jobs, maintaining bank and supermarket IT equipment. BIK is a big chunk of the monthly take-home pay for a vehicle that's essential for the job, not a perk for an office bod.
I was paying about £50 a month for my last company car (Mazda 6) in 2008. I had a "reimburse" fuel card, so no tax liability there.
I was doing 45k miles a year, so taking the car allowance + 13p a mile option wouldn't work.
Not sure an EV would work if I was still doing that job. Some days I would do 400+ miles. I was on call, so might have to go out during the night before the car had recharged.
Having to pay £400 or whatever BIK on an ICE car that's used 95% for an employer would be a killer.
Last I heard, some of my ex-colleagues were opting for small company vans to minimise the BIK hit.
These are £30/35k a year jobs, maintaining bank and supermarket IT equipment. BIK is a big chunk of the monthly take-home pay for a vehicle that's essential for the job, not a perk for an office bod.
clockworks said:
I was a home-based field engineer for a multinational IT company. When BIK started to get a bit silly, they found a loophole - car ownership scheme.
I was paying about £50 a month for my last company car (Mazda 6) in 2008. I had a "reimburse" fuel card, so no tax liability there.
I was doing 45k miles a year, so taking the car allowance + 13p a mile option wouldn't work.
Not sure an EV would work if I was still doing that job. Some days I would do 400+ miles. I was on call, so might have to go out during the night before the car had recharged.
Having to pay £400 or whatever BIK on an ICE car that's used 95% for an employer would be a killer.
Last I heard, some of my ex-colleagues were opting for small company vans to minimise the BIK hit.
These are £30/35k a year jobs, maintaining bank and supermarket IT equipment. BIK is a big chunk of the monthly take-home pay for a vehicle that's essential for the job, not a perk for an office bod.
If it's essential for the job and not a perk, then it only needs be used for work use = zero BIK.I was paying about £50 a month for my last company car (Mazda 6) in 2008. I had a "reimburse" fuel card, so no tax liability there.
I was doing 45k miles a year, so taking the car allowance + 13p a mile option wouldn't work.
Not sure an EV would work if I was still doing that job. Some days I would do 400+ miles. I was on call, so might have to go out during the night before the car had recharged.
Having to pay £400 or whatever BIK on an ICE car that's used 95% for an employer would be a killer.
Last I heard, some of my ex-colleagues were opting for small company vans to minimise the BIK hit.
These are £30/35k a year jobs, maintaining bank and supermarket IT equipment. BIK is a big chunk of the monthly take-home pay for a vehicle that's essential for the job, not a perk for an office bod.
The Mazda 6 option wouldn't work now. Back in 2008 that was a low BIK car due to low Co2 (guessing it was a diesel). More recently the take nox into NOx into account too so it would be high on BIK.
In your example a van or other commercial vehicle used only for work would be a zero cost option to the employee. Then buy a personal car for personal use.
If you used the van for personal miles too, it would trigger flat rate BIK which is low on a commercial vehicle but still wouldn't make sense if it was genuinely used 95% for work.
What amazes me is that for 35k a year an engineer is prepared to drive 45k and be on call at night AND drive 400+ miles on a single day, which would be at least 8 hours of solid driving in addition to whatever time spent fixing whatever you'd driven to that day. I assume the extra hours and night work actually made the 35k job much better paid...?
TheDeuce said:
If it's essential for the job and not a perk, then it only needs be used for work use = zero BIK.
The Mazda 6 option wouldn't work now. Back in 2008 that was a low BIK car due to low Co2 (guessing it was a diesel). More recently the take nox into NOx into account too so it would be high on BIK.
In your example a van or other commercial vehicle used only for work would be a zero cost option to the employee. Then buy a personal car for personal use.
If you used the van for personal miles too, it would trigger flat rate BIK which is low on a commercial vehicle but still wouldn't make sense if it was genuinely used 95% for work.
What amazes me is that for 35k a year an engineer is prepared to drive 45k and be on call at night AND drive 400+ miles on a single day, which would be at least 8 hours of solid driving in addition to whatever time spent fixing whatever you'd driven to that day. I assume the extra hours and night work actually made the 35k job much better paid...?
Only using a vehicle for business miles is fine if you leave it at a depot, and commute to and fro in your own car. Not so easy to justify to HMRC when you are home-based.The Mazda 6 option wouldn't work now. Back in 2008 that was a low BIK car due to low Co2 (guessing it was a diesel). More recently the take nox into NOx into account too so it would be high on BIK.
In your example a van or other commercial vehicle used only for work would be a zero cost option to the employee. Then buy a personal car for personal use.
If you used the van for personal miles too, it would trigger flat rate BIK which is low on a commercial vehicle but still wouldn't make sense if it was genuinely used 95% for work.
What amazes me is that for 35k a year an engineer is prepared to drive 45k and be on call at night AND drive 400+ miles on a single day, which would be at least 8 hours of solid driving in addition to whatever time spent fixing whatever you'd driven to that day. I assume the extra hours and night work actually made the 35k job much better paid...?
My employer closed all their regional offices years ago. The only office left was in London - 300 miles away. We were all classed as home based, getting our parts delivered by couriers overnight. The employer did look at getting the courier depots classed as our base, so we could leave the vehicle there, but my depot was 2 hours away.
The on call allowance was one of the things that made the job worthwhile.
I did spend one 7 week period where I was permanently on call due to colleague sickness.
Fortunately most of the callouts were weekend daytimes. That was the only time I went into the 40% income tax band.
Edited by clockworks on Thursday 29th February 10:32
clockworks said:
TheDeuce said:
If it's essential for the job and not a perk, then it only needs be used for work use = zero BIK.
The Mazda 6 option wouldn't work now. Back in 2008 that was a low BIK car due to low Co2 (guessing it was a diesel). More recently the take nox into NOx into account too so it would be high on BIK.
In your example a van or other commercial vehicle used only for work would be a zero cost option to the employee. Then buy a personal car for personal use.
If you used the van for personal miles too, it would trigger flat rate BIK which is low on a commercial vehicle but still wouldn't make sense if it was genuinely used 95% for work.
What amazes me is that for 35k a year an engineer is prepared to drive 45k and be on call at night AND drive 400+ miles on a single day, which would be at least 8 hours of solid driving in addition to whatever time spent fixing whatever you'd driven to that day. I assume the extra hours and night work actually made the 35k job much better paid...?
Only using a vehicle for business miles is fine if you leave it at a depot, and commute to and fro in your own car. Not so easy to justify to HMRC when you are home-based.The Mazda 6 option wouldn't work now. Back in 2008 that was a low BIK car due to low Co2 (guessing it was a diesel). More recently the take nox into NOx into account too so it would be high on BIK.
In your example a van or other commercial vehicle used only for work would be a zero cost option to the employee. Then buy a personal car for personal use.
If you used the van for personal miles too, it would trigger flat rate BIK which is low on a commercial vehicle but still wouldn't make sense if it was genuinely used 95% for work.
What amazes me is that for 35k a year an engineer is prepared to drive 45k and be on call at night AND drive 400+ miles on a single day, which would be at least 8 hours of solid driving in addition to whatever time spent fixing whatever you'd driven to that day. I assume the extra hours and night work actually made the 35k job much better paid...?
My employer closed all their regional offices years ago. The only office left was in London - 300 miles away. We were all classed as home based, getting our parts delivered by couriers overnight. The employer did look at getting the courier depots classed as our base, so we could leave the vehicle there, but my depot was 2 hours away.
TheDeuce said:
If you're home based, as was claimed, there's no issue using a car/van for work only and subsequently paying zero tax, as no perk.
Maybe things have changed? It was never offered to us as an option back then. None of my colleagues, or employees of our competitors, were doing it.We were explicitly told that it was only an option if the vehicle was left at a depot every night, and for most of us that wasn't possible.
clockworks said:
TheDeuce said:
If you're home based, as was claimed, there's no issue using a car/van for work only and subsequently paying zero tax, as no perk.
Maybe things have changed? It was never offered to us as an option back then. None of my colleagues, or employees of our competitors, were doing it.We were explicitly told that it was only an option if the vehicle was left at a depot every night, and for most of us that wasn't possible.
But if your main place of work is your home, then from HMRC perspective there is no problem leaving the van there. There's a difference between company policy and HMRC rules.
In reality if on the way home in the van, you popped to a shop to buy some milk, you would instantly fall foul of 'only company miles', and technically would need to pay BIK. But also in reality, that happens everyday and it's virtually undetectable - or at least not at all worth the effort to detect and provide evidence of.
All in all, in the situation you describe, it would be easiest and most practical to take a fully commercial company vehicle for work and personal mileage, the BIK on commercial benefit + fuel is flat rate and fairly low. It sounds like this is what your former colleagues are now doing.
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