Audi Q4 e-tron tops salary sacrifice orders

Volkswagen Group brands are responsible for the lion’s share of new electric vehicles (EVs) ordered through Fleet Evolution’s salary sacrifice scheme in the past six months.

The new Audi Q4 e-tron is the most popular salary sacrifice car with 16% of new vehicle orders, ahead of the Tesla Model 3 in second place with 15%.

In third place was the Porsche Taycan followed by the Kia e-Niro in fourth spot, before VW Group models then claimed the next four places, through the Audi e-tron, Skoda Enyaq, VW ID3 and VW ID4, to record six of the top ten best-selling EV models.

Between them, VW Group models accounted for more than a third (36%) of all new EV orders that Fleet Evolution has received in the past six months.

“We are having a record year, with orders up 150% on last year when a number of lockdowns and a huge amount of uncertainty caused by the Covid pandemic put a stranglehold on orders,” said Fleet Evolution founder and managing director, Andrew Leech. “But, with more certainty, the nationwide vaccine roll-out and a return of business and consumer confidence, we have seen orders rebound very strongly as more employees realise what an attractive proposition an EV on salary sacrifice is.

“However, what is becoming increasingly apparent, especially in the last six months, is the domination by Volkswagen Group of our EV order bank, with an array of new models coming increasingly to the fore.”

Leech says the Tesla brand has lost some of its allure among its salary sacrifice customers, which total around 400 businesses with between three and 10,000 employees, and had now lost its number one position.

He said: “The Tesla Model 3 has been our number one model for a long time. But we are now seeing its dominance eroded by VW Group models, probably as buyers move away from the saloon shape and towards the SUV models that dominate much of the UK and European new car markets.”   

Leech says customers are now faced with a much wider choice of models, many of which are from mainstream manufacturers and very competitively priced.