Company car drivers wasting fuel by failing to turn on hybrids

“GREEN” company cars bought using government grants worth thousands of pounds may be as bad for the environment as normal cars because staff are not switching them on, data shows.

And many businesses have simply used the grant to save on buying regular cars, according to the Miles Consultancy, a fuel management adviser.

Analysis of fuel use for “hybrid” vehicles in corporate fleets, which can run on petrol or electricity, averaged 40 miles per gallon, around the same as would be expected for ordinary vehicles. Had they been part-run on electricity they could have done up to 130 miles per gallon, suggesting drivers are rarely or never running them in electric mode.

Many drivers may never have unwrapped their charging cables, the analysis done by the Miles Consultancy for the BBC said.

It comes after the grants, which have been in place for seven years, were recently scrapped early due to demand. The deadline to claim a discount on electric cars was brought forward by the Government after 9,000 vehicles sold in 10 days in a “last minute rush”.

Drivers looking to buy hybrid cars are no longer eligible for a discount. Full electric cars are still eligible, but at a lower level.

The so-called “plug-in” grant was introduced in 2011, giving buyers of hybrid vehicles as much as £4,500 off the price of a new car.

Paul Hollick, managing director at the Miles Consultancy, told the BBC: “The charge cables are still in the boot, in a cellophane wrapper, while the company and the employee are going in and out of petrol stations, paying for all of this additional fuel.”