A leading company car tax expert has predicted that fleets will lead the way and become early adopters of electric vehicles.

Mike Moore, director, Deloitte Car Consulting, believes that employers and employees will find it increasingly hard to ignore the tax benefits.

This will be coupled with a growing sense of corporate social responsibility, which will increase the pressure to move to EVs, while guarantees from manufacturers around the technology will also deliver more certainty.

“If we look at some of the tax breaks available to corporates, I think there’s going to be a real drive from them to move to electric vehicles,” Moore told delegates at last week’s Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA) conference.

His remarks came in the wake of a new survey by Glass’s which revealed the number of people considering buying a plug-in hybrid or battery electric car as their next vehicle had risen from 9% to 53%, representing a five-fold increase since the same question was last asked in July 2010.

“This is a phenomenal increase in a very short space of time and represents a fast-growing acceptance of the emergence of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles into the mass market”, said Andy Carroll, managing director at Glass’s.

The Government’s £43 million incentive programme, which offers buyers of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles up to £5,000 off the purchase prices, was rolled out on January 1 and so far nine models are eligible for the grant.