Who we are
We’re a new company that is energised about electric vehicles (EVs) and all the advantages they bring. Whether you are an individual, a business or an organisation, we’re here to make the transition to EV as seamless as possible for you.
Bounc-e is simplifying the switch to electric vehicles with an easy-to-use mobile app that offers a full selection of EVs, available with flexible contract arrangements. We provide salary sacrifice (SalSac), business and personal contract hire including short term leasing.
Our directors are all based in Scotland and come from a combination of renewable energy and automotive backgrounds.
Bounc-e has spent two years researching and then developing a fully functioning mobile app, along with a sophisticated admin portal, to support the whole customer journey from choosing a car and monitoring charge to mapping out charging stations. The app experience plans to have elements of gamification built into it to keep users engaged and employers can use the anonymised data to measure their progress on the road to net zero.
Joining Bounc-e
We aim to make the joining experience easy and will talk and walk you, your team, your staff through the whole process. With Bounc-e, we aim to give you full control of the scheme you would like to implement. This involves setting your own ‘scheme rules’. After initial qualification and eligibility, the scheme rules are discussed where the company is able to fine tune the scheme, so it suits them and their employees. Unlike other SalSac or Fleet providers, we believe that the client should have that choice and it’s not a case that one size fits all. This can include such things as insurance products, charge points, brand, or funding preferences and more.
It is at this point we provide a suite of documents to ensure full understanding and compliance for the scheme, in line with HMRC requirements mitigating any tax risk.
Once the rules are set, this is then built into your logins and what your staff and drivers are able to see and control on their individual login for the mobile app.
As an example – if, as a company, you would like to include early termination insurance to cover any risk of staff leaving or taking extended leave, then you are able to build that into the scheme, so all quotes provided will be inclusive.
Two of the most popular discussion topics at this time are insurance and charging, see below.
Insurance – There are two insurance products that fall within the scope of Salary Sacrifice. Car Insurance is the standard fully comprehensive insurance that we all need to drive a car in the UK. Whilst some businesses may have a fleet policy already in place and can simply add additional vehicles to that, we recognise that there may sometimes be a requirement for SalSac schemes. With that in mind, if you wish, we are able to build this into your scheme, as a rule, for all drivers who take an EV on your scheme. This includes multiple drivers and even young drivers can be added, although models may be limited.
Early termination Insurance covers the risk element of the company committing to a ‘staff’ car. What happens if the staff member leaves, is made redundant, goes on maternity leave? Well, there’s a scheme for that and if required, which we find around 50% of companies do, it can be built into your scheme. With Bounc-e, we offer two different policy options from A rated insurance companies whose cover differs slightly, so depending on where your concerns lie, we are able to build in the most suitable cover.
Chargers – As more and more people adopt EVs, most will prefer to charge at home. However, some early adopters may already have a charge point, or some may be unable to have a charge point at their property, so while other companies may ‘include’ this provision, we give you and the drivers the choice. In fact, we go further, we partner with several leading charge point providers so we offer you and your drivers the choice that can be based on many factors, such as, if you have solar panels at home or what colour or size box you would prefer.
We are also able to help with workplace charge points if that is a consideration, from a choice of providers. For fleets, we are also able to extend our service to include payment solutions for company car driver and business mileage.
Once the rules have been set, we allocate the access to the users and assist in getting everything set up. We will also offer to promote the scheme to your staff either online or in person and create a plan with you to drive engagement. This can include regular communication, extended offers and even product demonstration days.
Technology
The Bounc-e CMS portal is our ‘back of house’ control portal for employers. Once signed up, access will be given to nominated personnel within the business. From that login, the administrators can add all staff members for either SalSac or Fleet vehicles to the portal which will in turn, will invite each driver to create their own account and supply a link to download the Bounc-e mobile app. Once in use, the portal will allow you to view and control the process, including staff notifications to the App, compliance requirements and ongoing monitoring of the ‘fleet’.
The mobile app itself is unique to Bounc-e. Developed by our technology partner over the last couple of years, it gives your staff and drivers a unique experience, with a specifically designed and built app rather than a web portal/link, providing a much easier to use and more engaging experience. The mobile app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play via a free download, is built for the user to flow through the process of transitioning to an EV and understanding everything that goes with it. Once set up, it will allow the user to browse our selection of EVs, using their details to calculate the salary sacrifice amount, including the rules set by the company. As well as listing leasing rates for all the EVs available in the UK, it also provides an EV library, where the user can go to find out about EV models, current and future, explore the EV jargon, understand how to charge and how it works. In addition to finding the ideal EV, users are then able to browse a selection of charging solutions from some of the UKs leading EV charger providers, once selected, this can be added to the contract and built into their salary sacrifice offer, allowing them to save even more.
Once the order is placed, the order appears on their home screen, where they can keep track of each stage of the process, updated with status changes and delivery dates by our Bounc-e admin team with the user being alerted with an in-app notification, in addition to an email.
Once delivered, the app will then continue to provide help and guidance through ownership, with check-ins to ensure they are enjoying their EV. We provide charge point mapping, so if away from the home, or planning a longer journey, they can find places to charge away from the home. Useful guides, information on new EVs, EV updates and environmental info on their car/driving will provide further interaction throughout their ownership, and, as you would expect, we will alert each user in good time when their car is due for renewal so they can plan their next EV.
Vehicle Selection and Offers
Bounc-e EV Limited is essentially a broker, fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and as such we have access to any funding partner we choose. This allows us to search for the very best market rates for every EV in the UK marketplace. We do have relationships with specific partners that allow us to utilise the leading leasing partners in the UK. In addition, we also have a direct relationship to many dealer groups and manufacturers, so we are able to tap into their own funding solution, and quite often, their own rates are very strong. In contrast, some other SalSac providers are leasing companies themselves so only quote their own figures, while some other ‘brokers’, rely on a small number of funding partners, many with just one funding partner. We believe, again, a greater choice should be offered.
In addition to this, through our relationships with our funding and dealer partners, and of course the manufacturers themselves, we open up access to every EV(Cars & Vans) available in the UK and have access to any stock or special offers that may be available and if not available straight away, we can secure the best lead time for your EVs and sometimes even get enhanced levels of support or discount.
Short term lease solutions for EVs are also available, and although SalSac must be taken for a minimum of 12 months, we can arrange EVs for as little as one month, these can be very useful for probationers or to alleviate the challenge around extended lead times. We can even offer a 12 month SalSac deal, where the car can be changed during the contract.
All our offers are fixed for the duration of the contract, with no increase from the point of confirmed order (subject to lead time) so no ‘rate creep’, inflated early rentals or documentation fees as with other providers.
We are transparent when it comes to fees too. We do not charge any initial processing or doc fees, our commission is built into the rates you see and paid to us directly by our funding partners.