Used EV Leasing with Telent

Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been working with Telent, an IT services provider to the defence, rail, traffic and public safety sectors, on a pilot to lease out some of our returning EVs on 24-month contracts. The aim was to improve vehicle availability and reduce costs. As we near the end of the first year of the scheme, we spoke to Charlie Dix, Corporate Relationship Manager at Lex Autolease as well as Gary Smith, Head of Fleet at Telent, and Richard Porter, Senior Engineer at Telent to find out more about their experience. 

Getting started

Charlie Dix begins: “We collaborated with Telent on a pilot to lease a small number of our returning EVs, specifically Tesla Model 3s, on an initial 12-month contract to help improve vehicle availability and prevent Telent drivers from experiencing any delays.

“To get the project off the ground required teams from across the business to come together, and at first, the process involved multiple handovers amongst colleagues. We quickly learned that we needed dedicated resource if the pilot was going to be able to scale and so created a new, dedicated team, known as Model Office, to handle the process from beginning to end.”

Collaboration didn’t stop here, however.

Charlie, continues: “The Model Office team still works closely with others across the business, as well as our external partners, to ensure continued success. For example, they work with our customers and British Car Auctions (BCA) to source suitable returning EVs and set up the lease agreements, while our Used EV Leasing team supplies valuable insight and feedback on how we can develop our system capabilities further.

“Our Platform Feature Team has also played an important role in ensuring our systems have the capability to identify and offer suitable returning EVs to customers, removing the manual processes that had been used previously.”

Onboarding customers

Richard Porter was the first driver to take part in the pilot. He’s had a number of company cars over the last few years, experiencing promotions over time that provided him with a wider range of choice.

Richard was first made aware of the used lease option for a Tesla through a call from Gary Smith, Head of Fleet at Telent, with the financial aspects such as low Benefit-in-Kind (BIK) tax and overall cost savings of EVs playing a significant role in Richard’s decision-making process.

The option came with a discount of 10-15% compared with leasing a new car, as well as potential savings in careful selection of charging plans and energy providers. He mentions Octopus Energy as the provider he went with: “You can get paid to charge your vehicle at non-peak times”, as well as the tax benefits: “The Benefit-in-Kind tax is super low.”  

Richard thoroughly praised the delivery experience and found the information shared with him to be informative and helpful, saying: “It was brilliant. Prior to the delivery I got loads of information from Lex and great support throughout the process.”

Becoming EV converts

Prior to this Tesla, Richard had never driven an EV before, but has quickly become a convert. “Once I got the vehicle, I took my son out on the dual carriageway and couldn’t believe the performance. I don’t really have range anxiety anymore either as I’ve become more used to the vehicle.”

Richard says the information provided by the Tesla app is not only very accurate but also informative, and that he’s been all over, from London and Aberystwyth to Cirencester and the Lake District.

He continues: “I’m especially impressed by the infrastructure Tesla has, with super-fast charge points that are also some of the cheapest.”

Building on the pilot

​​​​​​The pilot began with four cars, but its success has meant that Telent now has 25 drivers moving onto used EVs, with over 20 vehicles now delivered. When we asked Gary for his overall views on the programme, he said: “it’s a good idea as it helps blend our drivers into an EV mentality and supports Telent’s sustainability goals – I really am all for it.”

Collette Gunning, Senior Manager of the Used Car Leasing Team adds: “We’re currently onboarding more customers, and the expanded pilot will include a range of makes and models across our returning EV fleet.”

As well as offering used EV options directly to customers, Lex Autolease has also partnered with Loveelectric to expand its electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme through used EVs from Lex, offering further cost savings to customers looking to make the switch.

Collette finishes: “Our continued primary focus is developing our B2B proposition, but there are many more plans in the pipeline and our platform team remains focused on building the foundations to realise the multi-life-asset management vision.”