Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

[Taipan]

Saw a Faraday Future FF91 on the freeway today.. it was on dealer plates so I assume they still haven't managed to sell one. It was HUGE.

I'd never heard of one, so I looked it up. Impressive! For anyone else that doesn't know what one is...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Name's a bit unoriginal innit? It's like a Tesla knock off.

[Taipan]

[Mr. Dazzle]

Latest employee car scheme list dropped this morning, there's an EV on there now Lovely 350 mile ranger too, with all the super fancy add ons and YouTube drag racing ability. Only £70pcm more than my derv!

Sadly I've got a year left to run on my current wagon, but hoping this is the first of many.

[Potter]

It makes me almost not want to retire so I can get excited about company cars again. I remember when I became eligible for a BMW and a BlackBerry, crikey it was like I’d made it in life

[Mr. Dazzle]

Nah it's not a company car - it's just a "here's a massive discount" car. Still a private vehicle. I can get everything from a hatchback to a V8 SUV.

In fact, I can have two! Mrs. D doesn't want one, she prefers a beater

Lesser mortals within the parent group have their car availability tied to their role/grade...but not us, we're on the special nerds scheme

[Potter]

They stopped that for us, people were buying luxury cars and selling them for a profit a week later.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Haha..not allowed to do that

I supppose technically maybe I could. I have to give them first refusal to buy it off me, I imagine they never refuse.

[Potter]

I sold my 911 to a bloke whose company (a semi government entity) had a scheme where they would pay half towards it. He was very happy about it.

The company paid me with a cashiers cheque. We went and cashed it together.

I think the deal was it had to be <3yrs old and he has to keep it for 3yrs, or maybe it was he’s only eligible every 3yrs, I forget now.

[Rockburner]

I sold my 911 to a bloke whose company (a semi government entity) had a scheme where they would pay half towards it. He was very happy about it.

The company paid me with a cashiers cheque. We went and cashed it together.

I think the deal was it had to be <3yrs old and he has to keep it for 3yrs, or maybe it was he’s only eligible every 3yrs, I forget now.

My Dad had (possibly*) the best "company car" scam going.... He bought his Aston DB4/5 when it was about 5 years old (bottom of it's value as it turned out) - but he bought it as a company car, so the company effectively footed the bill and it became an asset... a few years later he's become a partner and the Aston is still on the company books, parked in his garage and slowly it's value to the company is going down (depreciating asset), and he eventually buys the car for a pittance from the company when it was (to the company), written off....


Obviously the "actual" value of the car had been growing. Long term plan, yes, but it paid off



* possibly not: would have paid off better if the car had gone for a decent value at the auction!

[Yorick]

When I had my own Ltd company I bought my first GSXR1000.
And bought very nice Dainese leathers and Arai etc.
All went through the books and reclaimed all the VAT.
Did loads of trackdays so all tyres etc also went through the books.
When I shut the company I bought it for myself for a nominal fee and put the depreciation through the books

Had a good accountant

[gremlin]

And you lot have the balls to slag off bankers.....

[ChrisW]

Name's a bit unoriginal innit? It's like a Tesla knock off.

Bloody cagers.

[wheelnut]

When I had my own Ltd company I bought my first GSXR1000.
And bought very nice Dainese leathers and Arai etc.
All went through the books and reclaimed all the VAT.
Did loads of trackdays so all tyres etc also went through the books.
When I shut the company I bought it for myself for a nominal fee and put the depreciation through the books

Had a good accountant

Trouble is, that ‘nominal fee’ has to be fairly realistic and that will be reintroduced as profit with the vat to be added.

If you don’t do it at a realistic market value, and HMRC notices, they will take offence.

(I’ve done 5 through the business so far, and it’s all good till you step off the merry go round).

[Mr. Dazzle]

My set up is pretty simple...they just lease the car to me for loads less. Financially it's set like any other lease, they merely choose to sell/lease me the car at a much lower price because they can. Does kinda make you realise the margins on the car in isolation There's no BiK implications or anything like that cause I'm buying it "with my own money" so to speak.

There's a list of 20-30 cars I can get, generally it's stuff which is selling less well. They spec em up to the nines, then sell em to the employees for a bit before buying them back for used stock. Keeps the production lines supplying and generates a steady stream of well specced used cars.

Does explain why I've got a diesel saloon, nobody wants those Hence my surprise that there are EVs coming through now.

[Mussels]

My set up is pretty simple...they just lease the car to me for loads less. Financially it's set like any other lease, they merely choose to sell/lease me the car at a much lower price because they can. Does kinda make you realise the margins on the car in isolation There's no BiK implications or anything like that cause I'm buying it "with my own money" so to speak.

There's a list of 20-30 cars I can get, generally it's stuff which is selling less well. They spec em up to the nines, then sell em to the employees for a bit before buying them back for used stock. Keeps the production lines supplying and generates a steady stream of well specced used cars.

Does explain why I've got a diesel saloon, nobody wants those Hence my surprise that there are EVs coming through now.

I thought you were on the EV salary sacrifice scheme, unless your wages are much lower than I'm guessing it would work out better financially for you. Or do you get to claim tax back on the lease as you are using it for work?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Both/Either.

Can get any brand of EV through salary sacrifice with all the tax stuff.

Can get vehicles direct from the mothership, not EVs until now, which are essentially just a massive discount on a private purchase. They've just cut the list price loads effectively, which they're free to do. No law against selling cars at cost/loss!

Payroll don't even see it, all comes from my current account. The loan appears on my credit record too.

Edit: for illustration...when I got my current car I had a look around to see how much it'd be to lease the same thing "normally". My total amount payable in the period I'll have it is about 1/3 of the cost to lease the same vehicle on the same terms privately. Salary sacrifice isn't going to top that!

[ZRX61]

U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating nearly 40,000 Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric vehicles over reports of power loss while driving tied to a battery charging issue.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... 023-06-19/

[weeksy]

Name's a bit unoriginal innit? It's like a Tesla knock off.

Bloody cagers.

deserved more recognition.

[Count Steer]

The Beeb are reporting that JLR have picked the UK for their new battery plant, yay!

There was an item on the radio yesterday about Port Talbot steelworks (owned by Tata, who own JLR). It appears the proposal to build the battery plant is, in some way, tied in with getting a few £billion in government support to modernise the steelworks. It's all a bit 'watch this space' at the moment as steel doesn't appear to be a strategic industry for the UK any more.