EVs PUT INDEPENDENT RENTAL FIRMS AT RISK OF CLOSURE

Insurance, chargers and resale costs make EVs pricey for indie firms

- JOHN EVANS

Electric vehicles could spell the end of independent vehicle rental companies, a leading family-owned UK firm has warned, amid a wider backdrop of waning demand for EVs generally among hire companies.

Kendall Cars, a rental group with 14 branches in the south-east and a fleet of 1500 vehicles, says businesses like it are closing partly because of the high insurance costs associated with the vehicles.

Group managing director Mark Kendall said: “Like a lot of smaller hire companies we self-insure our cars to keep our rates low, but EVs are high risk, and a lot of hire companies are giving up because they calculate that as their proportion of EVs increases, they won't be able to afford to cover them. “The national rental firms are stepping in by ignoring the retail market and renting the vehicles to business customers, who put them on their company insurance. But rental firms like ours can’t survive by ignoring retail customers.”

Underlying Kendall's comments is a lack of enthusiasm in general for EVs among rental firms, which are also worried about the high cost of installing chargers and limited rental demand.