VOLKSWAGEN Group  is beginning to assert its authority over the electric vehicle market in the salary sacrifice sector in the same way that it has dominated the ICE arena for many years.

That’s the view from EV salary sacrifice and fleet management specialist, Fleet Evolution, which has seen VW Group marques take the lion’s share of new electric vehicles ordered through its salary sacrifice schemes in the past six months.

Leading the way has been the new Audi Q4 e-tron with 15.68% of new vehicle orders, ahead of the Tesla Model 3, so long top of the charts, in second place with 15.14% – see chart below.

In third place, although quite some behind the Tesla Model 3, was the Porsche Taycan followed by the Kia e-Niro in fourth spot.

Volkswagen Group models then claimed the next four places, through the Audi e-tron, Skoda Enyaq, VW ID.3 and VW ID.4, to record six of the top ten best-selling EV models. Between them, VW Group models accounted for 36.48% of all new EV orders that Fleet Evolution has received in the last 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 said that, at the same time, the Tesla brand was losing some of its allure amongst his salary sacrifice customers, which total around 400 businesses with between three and 10,000 employees, and had now lost its number one position.

“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.   

“The Tesla has proved quite a quirky proposition and appealed to a certain type of individual who initially wanted an electric car to underline their green credentials – and at the time the Tesla was the only game in town.

“But our customers are now faced with a much wider choice of models, many of which are from mainstream manufacturers and very competitively priced, and they are more willing to be a little more adventurous in their choice of vehicle – as our order banks confirm,” he said.

“At the same time, more employers, in a very competitive labour market, are realising that a salary sacrifice electric vehicle scheme is an excellent way of attracting the best talent and so are willing to make such schemes more widely available,” he added.