Friday 17 July 2026 11:07 am
| Updated:
Friday 17 July 2026 11:08 am
A new era of electric elegance
The traditional executive company car used to be defined by a beautifully simple set of rules, writes motoring journalist Tim Barnes-Clay.It required a German saloon, 3.0 litres of naturally aspirated displacement, finished in metallic paint, and a designated parking space close to the boardroom doors.It was a statement of seniority, paid for by the corporation, and gracefully yet gleefully accepted as a natural right of high office.In recent years, though, especially in the current financial climate, this arrangement has become thoroughly old-fashioned.Strict taxation on anything that emits carbon dioxide, along with sophisticated leasing structures, has entirely changed the Director of Finance’s calculations.For the modern executive, choosing a company car is now more an exercise in asset management than one of prestige.The Cost of the ConventionalModern-day fiscal realities mean that premium petrol and diesel vehicles are intentionally punitive in terms of tax efficiency.HM Revenue and Customs has designed the Benefit in Kind (BiK) structure to ensure that high-emission luxury cars are unviable as corporate perks.When a traditional combustion-engined car pushes past the 30% BiK band, the monthly cost deducted via PAYE can easily begin to rival a mortgage payment.The business suffers, too, as employer National Insurance contributions add an extra 15% charge onto the value of the benefit.Furthermore, the Expensive Car Supplement adds (currently) £440-a-year onto your road tax bill from years two to six inclusive if the car’s outright price is above a £40,000 threshold.While this also applies to EVs, the threshold for zero-emission cars has recently been raised to £50,000, providing more headroom and an extra incentive for those choosing to ditch the combustion engine.It also means that, with specifications chosen wisely, an electric executive car can bypass some of the additional overheads that plague a traditional luxury combustion-engined vehicle.
