DIESEL still has an important role to play for many businesses despite calls for a diesel scrappage scheme designed to improve air quality by removing older vehicles, says Arval.
The leasing and fleet management company believes that such initiatives can be very effective in removing old and inefficient vehicles, but there is a risk that all diesel vehicles become incorrectly perceived as inherently “dirty”.
This is despite newer cars and vans offering excellent efficiency and worthwhile environmental advantages.
Mounting pressure for a diesel scrappage scheme ahead of the Budget is led by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who has been pushing to accelerate regulations to cut emissions in the capital, with other low emission zones planned for cities across the country.
Previous scrappage scheme 2009
- The last UK scrappage scheme was introduced in the 2009 Budget by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling after the global financial downturn
- Cars had to be more than 10 years old and to have been owned for more than a year
- 392,000 cars were scrapped in part-exchange for new ones following lobbying by SMMT
- Initial government fund £300m for £1,000 per car was matched by manufacturers for £2,000 against cost of new car
- Scheme extended twice to end March 2010
- It was followed by launch of £230m fund to start £5,000 plug-in grant for electric cars
In other European countries some cities like Paris are already banning older diesels.
Arval’s David Nicholas said: “There are no confirmed details available about a scrappage scheme but it is likely that it would only be aimed at the very oldest, most polluting diesel vehicles on our roads. This makes sense to us and is a move that we would support.
“What concerns us is the possibility that modern Euro 6 diesels, that have a core role to play in the modern mix and offer strong environmental credentials such as low CO2, could somehow become perceived as undesirable.
“This would be limiting for fleets and actually make very little sense in operational terms. Certainly, none of the older vehicles that are likely to be included in a scrappage scheme would be found on fleets in anything but tiny numbers.”
David said that there were already signs that the absolute dominance of diesel in the business sector was coming to an end.
“For a long time, diesel was the automatic choice for fleets and this is no longer the case. The publicity given to air quality issues are a factor in this but also, recently, new drivetrain technology has started to provide viable alternatives.
“We are now entering an era where hybrids, which are being offered by several manufacturers, offer similar or better emissions performance to diesels. It is also often easier to engineer these cars to meet modern emissions standards at an acceptable price.
“Choice lists are gradually changing to reflect these trends. There is no indication that there will be a sudden exodus away from diesel but there are several signals that the direction of travel has changed.”
In Arval’s latest Corporate Vehicle Observatory research, UK businesses predicted that the percentage of diesel cars they operate would reduce from 88% today to 76% within five years.
