6 Reasons to start leasing Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs)

In the last few years, Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) have quietly been becoming a better and better proposition for any organisation with a fleet.

Today, the benefits of greener cars and vans are so compelling, if you don't consider them, you risk seriously missing out.

Here's why this is the perfect moment to look into leasing ULEVs.

ULEV – Ultra Low Emission Vehicle. A vehicle that produces less than 75g of CO2 for every kilometre it travels.

EV – 100% Electric Vehicle. A vehicle that runs on electricity alone.

Hybrid – A petrol engine running alongside an electric motor. PHEV – Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle. This uses electric power until the battery runs down, when a petrol engine kicks in.

E-Rev – Range extended electric vehicle. It has a plug-in battery pack and electric motor, as well as an internal combustion engine (ICE).

Hydrogen is something of a cross-over between ICE and an electric vehicle.

ICE – Internal combustion engine burns petroleum-based fuel to generate heat, to drive the vehicle's transmission and wheels.

The average UK car trip is just 8.5 miles. 1) Many modern EVs can cover over a hundred miles on a single charge. This year's Nissan's Leaf model can reach 150-160 miles with Nissan aiming for 250 miles by 2017. 2) With every generation, ULEV distances are getting longer. And with Tesla releasing their patents as an open-source to allow other automotive companies to utilise their tech innovations, we should be seeing even better, stronger and greener vehicles coming our way in the next few years.

Did you know?

Renault ZOE can home charge in just 4 hours.

And you can start running on full…While manufacturers will rightly recommend you let your EV's battery run down once in a while, a lot of times you can simply top up, when you're parked up overnight.

These days, most alternative fuelled vehicles look like, well, vehicles. Often really handsome ones at that. And the list of big names going ultra low is growing all the time: Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, Peugeot, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Kia, Volkswagen, BMW, Tesla.

Now, we're at the stage where some vehicle manufactures are starting to treat electric and hydrogen as just another engine option, alongside petrol and diesel. With Hyundai revealing the first car to be offered with a choice of 3 engines – EV, Hybrid and PHEV.

When it comes to picking the right ULEVs for their needs, organisations are increasingly spoilt for choice.

Did you know?

Toyota has been at the heart of the green revolution since 1997 -with over 6 million hybrids worldwide.

Getting the most from an ULEV means driving it right. This is why manufacturers offer driver training.

And it's getting faster. The number of ULEVs is remarkably increased. As a result, there is an effort for optimisation of the necessary infrastructure.

As of early February 2016, 3.832 UK locations have public charging points, with the vast majority of these chargers either ‘fast' or ‘rapid'.

Though, frankly, if you charge your EV at home, overnight, you might never need to use them.

Did you know?

The Government is trialing Electric Motorways that would enable you to charge on the go?

Some of our most popular ULEVs are vans and commercial vehicles. And reliability – alongside low costs – is a big part of the attraction.

While the technology in today's ULEVs is increasingly sophisticated, they're mechanically very simple, meaning:

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  Fewer things to go wrong.
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  Lower risk to your organisation's daily operations.
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  Less time and money spent on repair.

ULEV technology continues to evolve at a blistering pace – which means, if you're looking to buy a vehicle outright, you'd want to think carefully about the resale value before you take the plunge. With leasing, however, that resale value sits with your leasing provider. In other words, you don’t need to worry about it.

It's true that ULEVs are rarely the cheapest option on the forecourt. But when it comes to the whole-life costs, they can now beat a petrol or diesel vehicle hands-down. That's because you stand to save on: fuel, tax, maintenance, congestion charge, parking etc. The benefits are numerous and ever-increasing.

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