The trend towards providing company cars is set to continue into 2008, after 96% of employers said they expected more drivers who need a car for their job to opt for a company car.

This is up by 8% on the same period in 2006.

In addition, 67.9% of employers predicted that more employees would be offered a company car as part of their employment package, an increase of 6.7%.

The findings are contained in the GE Capital Solutions quarterly Company Car Trends report.

The trend suggests that the company car is staging a comeback following years when it has been widely accepted to be in decline.

Almost 100% of job-need drivers are now offered a company car by their employer as well as 78% of non-essential car users - this latter figure has risen 8.8% in the last 12 months.

This resurgence of the company car has been at the expense of cash for car schemes, says GE.

"Popularity of these has dipped by 5.8% year-on-year among job-need drivers," says the report.

"Employers expect a further fall of 4.2% in this provision during the next 12 months.

"Overall demand for all types of business car is set to rise at a predicted 4.2%."

Rich Green, managing director at GE Capital Solutions Fleet Services, said: "A situation has developed where employers are trying to pull both job-need and non-essential drivers back into traditional company cars, and employees are also pushing to get back into them."