CheapEV to “force price competition” in salary sacrifice

Salary sacrifice provider CheapEV has launched, promising to “force price competition in the sector”, claiming prices 10% to 20% lower than those of most competitors.

The company aims to become a secondary supplier to more than 50% of existing schemes within the next year, which it said will result in lower lease prices for employees.

It will make prices publicly available for comparison, and is developing a tool that will automatically show CheapEV prices alongside those of competitors.

CheapEV said its price advantage comes from working with a large number of brokers, and its ability to provide all of the associated infrastructure for implementing the scheme, including insurance, maintenance, and early termination cover, along with payroll and legal paperwork.

Steve Endacott, chairman at CheapEV, said: “The majors have always operated an old boys’ network, refusing to compete with each other on price.

“Although they have been forced by legal challenges to drop exclusive supply clauses from their contracts, this action effectively forces businesses to agree to their solus supply terms to set up an electric vehicle (EV) salary sacrifice scheme.

“Being a hated brand, feeding off the misery of our overpriced competitors is my ultimate ambition, as having a lean infrastructure and access to every lease price in the market guarantees our price competitiveness.

“Lease brokers do not work on the ridiculously high £2.5k per EV margins that Octopus EV earns (analysis of publicly published accounts), and this automatically gives us a price advantage.