Appearance is NOT everything when choosing fleet models
Kia Motors has revealed the most important factors for fleet managers when choosing their vehicles.
According to the Fleet Market Attitudes survey for 2015, carried out in August this year among 150 fleet managers, both appearance and environmentally friendly features rate highly for those in charge of choosing fleet models.
The results show that appearance rated highest, at 43%, followed by green credentials at 42%, while fuel efficiency also drives their decisions, at 32%.
In fact, the report suggests that being environmentally friendly is just as important as the appearance of a vehicle – the fleet managers said that the eco-friendly proportion of their fleet will rise to 42% in the next five years. This includes eco friendly, hybrids and EVs, as more models become available, says Kia.However, changing their organisation's entire fleet to eco-friendly models is not on the cards for fleet managers just yet. They indicated that before such a change, they would expect to realise an average fuel saving of £483 on each car per year.
To ensure that fleets are working cost-efficiently, fleet managers set vehicle budgets per employee grade. Other methods of doing this are to monitor the total cost of ownership, or to set key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with the costs of running the vehicle.
John Hargreaves, head of Fleet and Remarketing at Kia Motors UK, said: "What our research clearly shows us is that while cost efficiency is high on the fleet manager's agenda, it might not always be the deciding factor when choosing cars for their fleet.
"There are many things to consider outside of costs such as employee satisfaction and providing benefits that will attract new employees, and also the image the business may want to portray in their choice of vehicle. It is also interesting to see that eco-friendly features such as ISG (Idle Stop & Go) and efficient engines are now as important as the appearance of the car."
