‘Green transition is massive’ and Sogo is well placed for it

A demand for vehicle contracts with greater flexibility coupled with the desire to test a range of electric vehicles (EVs) to understand their suitability in different scenarios has helped fuel the growth of green mobility provider Sogo.

The company is backed by dealer group Cambria Automobiles and is the result of a conversation between Karl Howkins, who now heads up the business, and Cambria chairman and chief executive officer Mark Lavery. “Mark told me that he wanted to get into fleet and I told him that offering mobility services was the way to go, I could see it’s what consumers wanted,” says Howkins.

Howkins has enjoyed many years in the automotive industry since he started washing cars as a teenager at a Vauxhall dealership. He quickly rose through the ranks to various managing director positions, latterly at Citroën UK.

His father and Sogo colleague is well-connected Fleet News Hall of Famer Maurice Howkins, whose career includes 50 years at Vauxhall and eight at General Motors, where he was Europe-wide corporate sales director. “Dad was the reason I started work at a Vauxhall dealership and in the car industry; I had no choice really,” he jokes.

Sogo describes itself as a ‘green mobility provider offering customers ultra-flexible terms with monthly leasing on cars and vans’. It was launched in January 2021. Customers include individuals as well as micro businesses, SMEs (small-to-medium-sized enterprises) and large corporates.

Last year, it teamed up with BP to operate a carbon-neutral fleet across petrol, diesel and EVs. It also joined the energy giant’s Target Neutral programme to help fleet customers measure, reduce and offset their carbon emissions. Another service aims to help drivers stuck in long-term leases and finance agreements via an equity release scheme.

Buying vehicles in bulk meant Sogo had a healthy supply available when fleets struggled to source them elsewhere because of the impact of the global semiconductor and component shortage. It proved to be a real ace up the company’s sleeve. Howkins explains: