NHS Fleet Solutions has ordered 500 electric Nissan Leafs for its salary sacrifice scheme, which will be available to health workers and other public sector staff.
The business, which is operated by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, has provided more than 75,000 vehicles for the NHS and other public sector organisations in the last 15 years, with this latest order following a previous one for 350 vehicles last year.
According to the company, its salary sacrifice scheme involves participating members of staff giving up part of their pay packet under the terms and conditions of their employment, and receiving a car from their employer in return. Afterwards, the employee’s overall pay is reduced, resulting in them needing to pay less tax and National Insurance.
The UK government continues to charge benefit-in-kind tax on salary sacrifice cars, but the current rate for electric vehicles sits at just 1%.
An NHS Fleet Solutions spokesperson said that the organisation is delighted to take delivery of a sizeable consignment of all-electric Leafs, noting that it receives lots of positive feedback about it as it is a popular car, and it helps to support its environmental sustainability efforts in encouraging more use of electric vehicles.
Peter McDonald, Nissan’s fleet director, said that although the company supplies large volumes of cars and vans to all sorts of organisations across the UK, this agreement with NHS Fleet Solutions makes the team feel particularly proud.
‘‘We are delighted that hundreds of NHS staff and other key workers will be experiencing the thrill of electric motoring, many for the first time. And we’d like to express our thanks to the team at NHS Fleet Solutions for their continued support for Nissan and their promotion of the myriad benefits of electric motoring,” he commented.
