TRANSPORT
Reducing deadly air pollution: can your organisation breathe easy?
Neil Broad, general manager at Toyota & Lexus Fleet Services, says that public sector fleets are increasingly dropping diesels in favour of petrol hybrid vehicles.
A
fter a 10-year love affair with diesel vehicle fleets, many organisations are re-
thinking their policies. With health concerns about falling air quality in cities growing, and rising fuel and operating costs, many are now ditching diesels for cleaner, more efficient petrol hybrid alternatives.
For almost a decade the UK government focused simply on incentivising diesel’s lower carbon dioxide gas (CO2) emissions. The UK’s 11 million diesel cars now account for a third of all vehicles on the road.
Unfortunately, as we know now, the pollution and emissions picture is not that simple. Diesel engines also produce fine sooty particulates and generate up to double the nitrogen dioxide (amongst other NOx gases) of petrol engines. Both are hugely damaging to the environment – and in particular to human health.
The World Health Organisation cites diesel emissions as a cause of cancer, with its effects comparable to secondary cigarette smoking. 96% of British urban-dwellers are now exposed to dangerous levels of diesel particulates. In the UK alone, 5,000 premature deaths a year are linked to combustion exhaust.*
Quit smoking and save with petrol hybrid
Increasingly, public sector organisations are quitting diesels in favour of cleaner petrol hybrid vehicles – enjoying attractive tax breaks and lower costs over the life of each vehicle in the process. Combining power from both petrol and electric engines, petrol hybrid engines
generate near-zero NOx and zero particulates.
MPG is typically greater, with lower CO2 emissions. Petrol full hybrid offers large savings on emissions and more importantly both the driver and operator benefit from lower operating costs.
Minimise taxation
With company car taxation levels linked to CO2 emissions, choosing petrol hybrid technology reduces liabilities for both organisations and drivers alike. The lower the CO2 emissions, the less benefit-in-kind (BiK) personal tax a company car driver has to pay. For example, for a 40% taxpayer, choosing a Lexus CT 200h or IS 300h petrol hybrid instead of the equivalent diesel model over three years could well leave them more than £1,500 better off.
Organisations pay Class 1A National Insurance Contributions (NICs) on company cars and a low BiK rating also means a lower NICS contribution. Using the scenario above again, the savings to a company over three years could equate to more than £450 per vehicle.
Organisations can also claim greater tax relief by opting for lower emissions models. For example, there’s 100% capital allowance write- down available for vehicles producing 95g/km CO2 and below.
If you opt for the all-new Toyota Yaris hybrid, the first non-electric/plug-in car to beat the demanding 75g/km emissions target, the BiK tax rate is just 5%, or £14 a month (for a 20%
taxpayer), but it’s also congestion charge free. This in itself can save thousands of pounds.
Compare whole life cost
The most meaningful way to compare vehicles is through whole life costs. This figure takes account of all the expenses and tax implications a specific organisation incurs in acquiring, financing, operating, maintaining and disposing of a vehicle. It reveals important information such as depreciation, which can equate to 60% of whole life cost and highlights that, with fewer components to wear or require replacement, maintenance for a petrol hybrid can be half that of a comparable diesel model. Toyota & Lexus Business Centres can provide these personalised comparisons of the real cost of ownership for any current passenger car.
With a 13-strong petrol hybrid range now available through Toyota and Lexus Fleet services, there is no model compromise.
*Environmental Science Technology Health
– Public Impacts of
Combustion Emissions in the United Kingdom, 21 March 2012 (COMEAP – Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution)
Neil Broad FOR MORE INFORMATION
For an extended test drive of the new Yaris hybrid or any of the Lexus and Toyota petrol hybrid models, contact: T: 0344 701 6186 W:
brilliantforbusiness.co.uk/hybrid
public sector executive Oct/Nov 14 | 69
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