Lack of data impacting SMR costs for electric vehicles (video)

A lack of service, maintenance and repair (SMR) data for electric vehicles (EVs) is proving a challenge for leasing companies factoring costs into fleet contracts.

Some fleets have chosen to unbundle contracts, believing savings associated with EVs isn’t being passed on.     

But, a panel of leasing executives at Fleet and Mobility Live, said that the sector was working hard to better reflect actual SMR costs to fleets.

Phil Wilbraham, managing director of Pendragon Vehicle Management, told delegates at Fleet and Mobility Live: “If you have something that goes wrong with these cars, the SMR budgets probably feel quite low, because the cost of repair can be really, really high if there's a major component that’s gone.”

However, he acknowledged that if you do not have a major component failure, there could be a “perception” that SMR costs are too high.

“It’s about balancing that risk over the whole portfolio and dealing with those unplanned events,” he explained. “From our side, we just keep looking at the data, and we keep reviewing it and keep checking back into our pricing, because every month we learn something new, and every month we have more data points.

“What we do with that is just make sure that we are really proactive in making sure that we’re as competitive as we can be so that we’re delivering a really good price back to the fleet customer and also keeping them on the road.”