The Garage 308

News 36
Industry-wide discussions on EV finance needed
following 2035 announcement, says Startline
Industry-wide discussions
on used electric
vehicle finance are
needed following the
Government’s proclamation
on a 2035 deadline
for stopping petrol, diesel
and hybrid sales, says Startline
Motor Finance.
Major questions remain
around the funding of EVs
on the used market, said
CEO Paul Burgess, and the
announcement created a
new degree of impetus towards
resolving them.
“It’s fair to say that the
used car motor finance sector
has been aware of the
structural problems around
used EV funding for a while
but we believed that more
time was available to work
our way through them. The
new announcement moves
the point of action much
closer.
“Like most other motor
finance providers, we have
been looking at the challenges
around constructing
EV funding products. These
range from the fact that predicting
RVs remains much
more difficult than for petrol
and diesel cars through
to the question of the battery
as an asset.
“The current situation,
where there are very few
companies currently willing
to provide finance for
used EVs – and that even
some of those are having the
business underwritten by
manufacturers – illustrates
the difficulty of solving these
problems.”
Paul said that having a
properly functioning used
car market and accompanying
motor finance was essential
to the success of EVs in
the medium and long term.
“The Government announcement
means that,
within less than a generation,
we will all be EV drivers,
so finding viable finance
products is crucial but the
current models we use for
petrol, diesel and hybrid
don’t really work, at least at
the moment.
“Our view is that no single
motor finance company is
likely to solve this issue by
themselves and there needs
to be industrywide discussion
and co-operation in
order to deliver the required
innovations.”
It was certainly possible,
Paul added, that manufacturers
played a greater part
in the funding of used EVs
than had been seen in the
traditional motor finance
market.
“It’s been suggested that
manufacturers show their
faith in the product by underwriting
the battery while
motor finance companies
fund the car, and this is certainly
one option that could
help to create more affordable
products.
“However, there are any
number of potential solutions.
What the Government
has done with the 2035 announcement
is to make talking
about those possibilities
much more urgent.”
Based in Glasgow, Startline
specialises in a nearprime
approach to motor
finance and offers both HP
and PCP products. It now
employs 130 people and
works with around 50%
of the UK’s top 50 dealers
when measure by turnover.
36 News.indd 1 25/02/2020 13:47