Arval ignites Sanofi’s staff support and CO2 reduction drive
Sanofi has adopted a policy of encouraging drivers out of company cars and into Arval’s Ignition salary sacrifice arrangement as part of a drive to reduce its CO2 footprint and increase support for employees.
The global healthcare company, which has its UK headquarters in Reading, is aiming for its car fleet to be carbon neutral globally by 2030. This fleet decision will play a big part in helping them to meet that target, explained Usman Khan, Chief Financial Officer and Arval Ignition electric car driver.
“Our carbon commitment is very important to us and we also wanted to find a way of offering all our employees – not just our job-need car field sales team and our handful of perk fleet drivers – a way of accessing a wide choice of vehicles as a benefit, which helps to open up electric car access and reduce our CO2 emissions in their usage. We had conversations with Arval UK and switching to salary sacrifice seemed like the best route for us.
“Out of 750 employees in the UK, we now have 131 who have taken vehicles under the arrangement with a further 49 on order. It’s proven very popular and the structure of Ignition, with all costs including an insured leased vehicle, servicing, maintenance and repairs combined into a single monthly payment, has been fundamental to its success – so much so I have taken an EV myself. The product is very easy to use with effective tools to help you get into the right car at the right price, as well as good communications to let you know when the vehicle is coming and other updates.”
The Sanofi Arval Ignition arrangement is structured to encourage take-up of electric and plug-in hybrid cars, with just one diesel vehicle leased.
Ali Connolly, Facilities and Records Lead at Sanofi, added: “To help encourage adoption of electrified cars, we offer £500 towards the cost of a home charger for field force employees and we also have four chargers that are free to use at our head office, soon to be expanded to 34.
“Employee acceptance of the arrangement has been very good, helped by Arval UK holding a series of employee webinars. Clearly, moving away from petrol and diesel vehicles is the right choice – environmentally as well as keeping employees mobile without the complexities of car ownership – and our staff recognise that.
“The ongoing semiconductor shortage means that vehicle supply has been slower but nothing too onerous and generally people have been able to get the car that they want. Our salary sacrifice scheme CO2 is only 15g/km which is very pleasing and in time it may reduce to zero with the removal of the diesel vehicle.
“Additionally, we’ve been taking part in Arval’s ‘1 Electrified Vehicle = 1 Tree’ scheme, which sees a tree planted in the UK for every electrified car that we lease. This is a nice added benefit that very much fits into our corporate ethos.”
Jamie Williams, Head of Large Corporate Sales at Arval UK, said: “We’ve been working with Sanofi for more than 10 years and have developed a deep understanding of their fleet needs over that time. When they came to us with a desire to reduce fleet emissions while increasing employee satisfaction, Ignition was very much the obvious choice and they are already seeing strong results.
“Following the pandemic, we have seen considerable growth in interest in salary sacrifice. It provides a range of genuine advantages to employers and employees with no real downsides or compromises. With relatively low electric vehicle taxation confirmed until 2028 in the recent Autumn Statement, we’re expecting significant take-up to continue into 2023 and well beyond.”
For more information and a free consultation, visit our page on Arval Ignition.
