How is Schneider Electric's new company car policy cutting CO2 emissions by 10%?

Schneider Electric has launched an ultra-low emission company car policy as part of its efforts to cut CO2 emissions by 10%.

The company, which operates an employee car ownership (ECO) scheme, currently has average CO2 emissions of 133g/km.

When it launched is ECO scheme in 2010, its original CO2 cap was 160g/km, but has since lowered this to 130g/km. It introduced its ULEV policy in June.

Employee car ownership schemes are tax efficient schemes in which an employee owns their vehicle from day one, significantly reducing company car tax and national insurance contributions as a result.

Eligible employees are a monthly salary allowance to spend on a car of their choice, but receive all the maintenance and insurance benefits of a traditional company car.

The allowance is worked out individually for drivers and is based on their car grade, tax bracket and annual business mileage.

Mandi Nicol (pictured), fleet manager at Schneider, said: “We’ve got around 185 of our current order take as ULEVs.

“In order to maintain some of the savings that the ECO scheme gives us, the average driver contribution is going to be less as the BIK falls, so we have had to reduce the allowances which seems bizarre as an EV of PHEV costs more than an ICE vehicle.

“What we’ve tried to do is that if we compare a driver between a ULEV and a traditional ICE vehicle is to ensure they would be no worse off, and they should be better off in terms of what they are paying out.”

As part of its environmental commitment, Schneider is also increasing the number of charging points at its main UK sites.

Nicol said Schneider, which has a car fleet of 1,300, is also seeing a big shift to petrol among its user-choosers, with BMW, Audi, and Kia among the most popular brands.

The company also has a target to cut business mileage by 10% this year, and is currently 5% ahead of that ambition.

> Nicol was speaking at the September meeting of the Fleet200 Executive Club.

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