elmo for Business
All-inclusive alternative to electric car business leases
Offering a company car is an attractive, high-value benefit for your employees, but can be a complex and expensive administrative headache. elmo for business is the easy, flexible, cost-effective and low-risk way to manage company cars for your business.
On top of this, employees who don’t qualify for a company car can still access the many benefits of driving an electric car with a salary sacrifice scheme, which you can offer your employees at virtually no cost to your business – in fact, you could even save money.
elmo offers the widest range of electric cars in the subscription market and an all-inclusive business car subscription that makes driving electric accessible for your employees.
Benefits of electric car business leases and subscriptions
When it comes to offering your employees a company car, there are three options: owned, leased or a subscription. By owning the company cars you provide to your employees, the car is treated as a fixed asset, however, this does mean some tricky tax implications. As a result, many businesses prefer to lease or subscribe, which offers the same benefits with none of the admin or accounting complexities.Â
The benefits to your company of offering electric cars include:
- Add to your existing benefits package
- Offer an attractive perk to retain and attract top industry talent
- Improve your business’s environmental impact
Offering a company car is an attractive perk, but not one that can be offered to all employees. However, a salary sacrifice scheme is an affordable way for all permanent employees to drive their own EVs, with huge savings for them and tax benefits to your business.
This is all on top of the plethora of benefits that come with driving an electric car, including lower running costs, a smaller environmental impact and no congestion charges (including in ULEZ). Check out more benefits of electric cars to see exactly how driving electric can benefit your business, your employees and the environment.
What will a business car subscription from elmo cost?
With no upfront costs and an all-inclusive service, elmo makes it possible for you to offer highly-affordable electric cars to your employees.
You can view a complete breakdown of our pricing here. Included within each price are:
- The vehicle
- Comprehensive insurance
- Service and maintenance costs
- Breakdown cover
- Fair wear and tear on tyres
- Vehicle excise duty
- and Congestion charge autopay
There is also a range of optional extras, including extra mileage and additional drivers. Each price includes VAT.
For example, a Fiat 500e Icon subscription costs from £429 per month for 800 miles per month, and is the only fee your business pays.
With a salary sacrifice scheme, your employees forfeit their gross salary to pay for their electric car subscription, and BIK rates (2% until 24/25) make it more affordable than ever – between 30-60% off the monthly cost, depending on the employees’ salary. For more information, check out our salary sacrifice page.Â
What’s best for your business: leasing vs subscription vs purchase
As we’ve already highlighted, owning your company cars means they’re treated as fixed assets. With that comes depreciation, which can be difficult and complex when it comes to tax implications. Both leasing and subscribing to an electric car come with positives over owning, including:
- No depreciation of assets
- A lower or zero deposit
- All-inclusive features such as insurance, servicing and breakdown cover
However, while an electric car business lease can be more suitable than owning one, there are other drawbacks that can make it restrictive, including multi-year contracts and less flexibility. With an electric car subscription:
- There are no multi-year contracts
- Drivers can change their vehicle whenever they like
- Just give 30 days’ notice when you want to return the car
With an elmo electric car subscription, everything is managed online, so you can offer your employees a fantastic benefit with little admin.
What are the options for EV charging at a workplace?
There are a number of schemes available that make installing electric car charging points for your business a low-cost, or even free option. For example, Chargemaster will install a charge point for free if it will also be accessible to the public.
The workplace charging scheme also offers a 75% grant for the purchase and installation of up to 40 charge points.
If the office space is leased can we still install EV chargers?
If you lease your current business premises it’s important that you get permission before installing a charge point. Some lease agreements may have restrictions on changes made to the property. However, as an EV charge point is seen as an improvement, it’s unlikely you should face any obstacles when seeking permission from a landlord.
What are the best electric car models to use as business cars?
The best makes and models for use as an electric car through your business are those which offer long range, comfort and plenty of power. It’s also important that they have plenty of space so they can double as a family car.
These include:
- Audi e-tron – practical and no-nonsense
- Tesla Model 3 – high-performing and packed with tech
- Kia e-Niro – offers great range and affordable
- Polestar 2 – futuristic with powerful acceleration
- Renault ZOE – light and stylish: a great city car
elmo offers the widest range of electric cars on the market, so we guarantee you’ll find the perfect EV for your employees’ needs.
Why not consider Salary Sacrifice instead?
Salary Sacrifice schemes are an excellent way to drive an electric car, for less. The cost of the car is taken from pre-tax pay, so the employer saves on Tax and National Insurance contributions. The employer also benefits from this scheme by offering employees an excellent benefit, plus with elmo – we manage everything for you, so there’s no additional admin headaches.
HMRC do consider salary sacrifice electric cars a Benefit-in-kind, so there is still some tax to pay. For electric cars, it’s currently set at just 2%, compared to 22% if you were to salary sacrifice a petrol car.
As a business, salary sacrifice schemes make a great deal of sense if you want to offer your employees a car. Plus with an elmo salary sacrifice scheme, there’s the added benefit of being all-electric. Improving your company’s environmental credentials.
Watch our short explainer video below to find out more about our salary sacrifice scheme.
Ready to get started? Here’s how it works…
It’s simple to create a business account and add subscriptions for you and your team.
- Sign your business up to elmo here
- Choose electric cars from our available selectionÂ
- Follow the steps online to book each car, naming an employee as the Main Driver
- After each booking, the elmo team will carry out approval checks and confirm a delivery date with the Main Driver
- To end a subscription, just give us 30 days’ notice before the end of your minimum term and we’ll collect the car from the Main Driver
If you have any questions, please start a live chat (in the bottom right) or email hello@elmodrive.com
FAQs
Would the cars need to be for business use only?
No, provided the car is not being used for ‘hire & reward’, a business subscription for a company car or salary sacrifice vehicle can be used for personal and business use.
What resources are available about the tax implications?
The UK Government provides detailed information about salary sacrifice schemes and the tax implications.Â
Why is company car tax lower for EVs?
As part of the effort to incentivise the adoption of electric cars, the government has fixed the Benefit in Kind (BIK) tax paid on electric company cars to 2% until 2025. This is considerably lower than the tax employees would pay for a hybrid or ICE car benefit.
Is it expensive to allow electric car charging at a workplace?
There are a few cost implications to consider if you are thinking about installing car charging at the workplace. Firstly, there’s the initial charge point unit cost, which can vary anywhere between £1,000-3,000.Â
Then there is the cost to charge your employees’ cars. This will vary depending on the time of day, your provider, how often it is used and the type of car being charged.Â
Are electric cars suitable for long business trips?
More and more electric cars have 200+ miles ranges and public charging infrastructure is improving at pace, with plenty of apps that can help you plan the trip and manage your charging needs. Realistically, it depends on how far and where you are travelling though!
How does claiming fuel expenses work with electric cars?
Usually, claiming fuel expenses is worked out based on the distance covered, so your employees can still claim mileage expenses for an electric car in the same way. An average cost per mile will be used to work out your owed expense.Â
Can you get government grants for electric car charging points for businesses?
Yes. The UK Government has a voucher scheme called ‘The Workplace Charging Scheme’ which provides support towards the upfront costs of the purchase and installation of electric vehicle charge-points, for eligible businesses.Â
What are the current HMRC electric car business mileage rates?
This varies depending on whether the car is considered a company car, or a personal car being used for business travel. For company cars, the Government currently advises a rate of 5 pence per mile for fully electric cars. Hybrid cars are treated as either petrol or diesel for fuel rates – see the Advisory Fuel Rates for more information. If employees use their own personal vehicle (as would be the case with an elmo subscription), the Mileage Allowance Payments for electric cars are the same as for ICE vehicles: 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles per year, and 25p per mile after that.
Is the process for claiming business mileage for electric cars different from claiming for fuel?
No, it works in a very similar way. However, HMRC’s advisory cost per mile is different for company cars, but not when personal cars are used for business travel.
Any Questions?
Call us on 0330 165 4945
Email us at hello@elmodrive.com
Try our suitability tool
Browse our electric cars
