A NEW partnership between Rivervale and Virtus Energy will include a home charging installation service in its customer’s monthly rentals, a first for the car leasing industry.
With electric vehicles set to become a leading player in the automotive industry, Rivervale Leasing offers hundreds of electric and hybrid options.
Chief Operating Officer, Vince Pemberton said: “We have had several chargers installed as the business has moved more and more into the green and eco space.
“If you own or intend to lease an EV, it’s important to install an efficient and ergonomic car charge point for home use. Virtus Energy is our recommended partner to all of our EV lease customers as well as offering advice and guidance to our commercial fleet clients.”
Offering home, commercial and developer charging installation solutions, Virtus Energy makes the switch to electric easy, with end-to-end EV charging installation and support.
Managing director Liam Ray said: “Rivervale is keen to become the leader within the EV market and this partnership brings two innovative companies together, as we seek to drive change in the transport industry and promote electric vehicles.”
Virtus Energy takes care of everything from network connection to infrastructure installation, including substations, meters, and cabling at various voltages. They even take on the grant process, allowing you to benefit from the government subsidy (OZEV) surrounding EV charger installation points.
Flexibility, diversity and moving with the times has probably never been more important and Rivervale has certainly not been sitting on its hands over the past year.
Rivervale has been a name synonymous with the motor trade in Brighton for the best part of 40 years as a car dealer and leasing business.
Last year it added vans taking on a Maxus, formerly LDV, franchise for the Sussex area, focusing on electric commercial vehicles, although diesels are available
Rivervale offers sales, as well as full service and parts support through its service centre in Victoria Road, Brighton.
The business used to be a Mercedes-Benz dealership through the 1980’s and 90s, but lost out to H.R.Owen in a franchise re-shuffle.
Pemberton, until then a senior sales executive, left the business to set up Eagle Oak vehicle contracts with his father. He kept in touch with Rivervale and had always enjoyed working for Tommy Sopwith.
As a result, Eagle Oak was sold to Rivervale in January 2009. Today Rivervale is made up of the core “online” leasing business but also specializes in Fleet/Fleet management, leasing minibuses to schools, sports clubs and care homes as well as operating a Bosch service centre to keep customers close.
It also operates a used car business with generally 25-30 vehicles in stock, mainly Mercedes in a nod to the early days.
Rivervale was approached by Maxus (who were then LDV) at the back end of 2019, to set up service and aftersales in preparation for the new range of electric vans that were due to be launched.
Pemberton said: “We flew to Dublin to see the product and decided to take the full franchise not just service. We are working closely with Brighton and Hove City council and several orders have already been placed. It is a really exciting time for electric vans, and it fits nicely with our leasing business as many electric vans become a more viable option when placed on a leasing scheme.”
He added that Rivervale’s leasing business is already hitting leasing numbers above pre-covid days. “Business did fall away in April last year but we kept our sales and admin staff working right through the lockdowns.
We did find we were writing more short term extensions than before, but it was important not to stress our customers. Keeping them in a car has been important to ensure they come back in the future.
When orders started to build up again it was almost like starting a new business. We now have 55 members of staff and we are recruiting as well as taking on apprentices.”
How does Rivervale ensure it keeps ahead of the game? Data is key, said Pemberton. We employ a Data Scientist as part of our Marketing team who helps us to understand and look at making important decisions based on the data.
He added: “We don’t make a decision without looking at the data. Gut feeling is great but not necessarily right. It is easier to make decisions when you have data in front of you. While we see the value in the data we also believe you should add a pinch of common sense.”
