The number of electric cars purchased by companies leasing has doubled in the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year, representatives of Citadele Bank told LETA, referring to the data of the group leasing company Citadele Leasing.
At the same time, the data of the leasing company show that the demand for electric cars from legal entities in the first four months of this year has increased by 56% compared to the corresponding period in 2021.
In the first four months of 2022, the most popular brand of new electric cars among companies is Nissan, but Hyundai, Škoda and Volkswagen are also among the top four most popular brands. The best-selling vehicle in the car model category is the Nissan Leaf, followed by the Škoda Enyaq and the Volkswagen ID.3.
When purchasing an electric car for leasing, legal entities most often chose a Škoda brand car, followed by Volvo and Fiat electric cars, according to Citadele Leasing.
Pēteris Plaudis, the head of Citadele Leasing in Latvia, notes that electric cars are mostly purchased by legal entities and the fleets of various companies provide the most mileage, therefore the support program for legal entities would make a significant contribution to stimulating the electric car market and reducing CO2 emissions.
Plaudis explains that despite the boom in the popularity of electric cars in Latvia, we are still five to seven years behind Western Europe in this niche.
According to him, targeted support for legal entities would be logical, as it is companies that operate the largest fleets with the widest availability, for example, by providing car-sharing platforms, taxis, couriers and other services.
The average support for the purchase of electric cars in the European Union is about 6,000 euros, while in the case of hybrid cars, legal entities can apply for a co-payment of about 3,600 euros. Also, in the case of the purchase of electric cars, most of Europe offers a 100% refund of value added tax, which can be recovered as input tax.
At the same time, the company notes that the popularity of electric cars is still growing rapidly among private individuals – in the first four months of this year, twice as many cars were purchased as in the same period last year.
Citadele Leasing, a leasing company of the Citadele Group, had a turnover of 33.973 million euros last year, which is 0.3% more than in 2020, but the company’s profit increased 42.5 times and reached 13.983 million euros.
In May 2021, the leasing company SIA Citadele līzings un faktorings, part of the Citadele Bank Group, changed its name to Citadele Factoring, while on January 4, 2021, Citadele Bank also became the sole owner of SIA UniCredit Leasing, and UniCredit Leasing was renamed Citadele Leasing in early February. The two leasing companies in the group – Citadele Factoring and Citadele Leasing – continue to operate independently of each other.
Citadele Bank is the second largest bank in Latvia in terms of assets.
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