Despite the negative economic impact of the pandemic, many Scottish businesses have continued to thrive over the last two years.

According to data from Scottish legal firm Morton Fraser, around 92% of scaleup companies successfully maintained a strong growth trajectory in 2020.

Two sectors that have been seeing substantial growth are fintech and electric vehicles (EVs). Fintech saw a surge as people moved away from physical cash and started purchasing more online during the pandemic.

EV uptake across the country has also seen a substantial boost as the impact of the climate crisis becomes more pressing, and fuel prices continue to rise due to the war in Ukraine.

During this turbulent time of growth, Steve Tigar has had an interesting journey. After joining the finance sector in 2014 as CEO at Money Dashboard, he branched off in 2021 to start his own company, loveelectric, which puts a focus on EV leasing.

DIGIT sat down with Tigar to discuss his career trajectory, building a successful business and the current state of Scotland’s EV market.

Money Dashboard and loveelectric

Tigar has been running digital or tech businesses over the last 10 years, in areas including property tech, fintech and now his latest venture in the EV market.

Edinburgh-based ethical fintech loveelectric has recently launched a new electric car leasing scheme to boost the uptake of Scottish EVs, and recently gained substantial funding to continue its growth.

He was CEO at Money Dashboard for around five years, originally as part of the management team. He comments on how exciting this period was as the country started seeing a transition with open banking.

Despite the excitement of this step-change, it also brought regulatory uncertainty and stress. Although it was a great period, Tigar says, it was a “hard journey” running a complex business model like Money Dashboard.

“As I was moving out of Money Dashboard, I wanted to find a slightly more straightforward business model, where we would very clearly capture the value that we were creating for customers in the form of revenue.

“I was looking for that and looking for an obvious and clear growth market and something that I was passionate about and so that’s how I landed with the idea for loveelectric.”

The reason for Tigar’s switch to EVs is his drive to be part of disruptive markets. When he joined Money Dashboard, financial technology was becoming more prevalent. In 2021, EV uptake had also started rising.

“With electric vehicles, it is a new form of transportation, which is quite a radical shift to the motor industry full stop,” Tigar says.

The move to loveelectric was also born out of his experience working with a creative agency, where he witnessed digital disruption in the broadcast media space first-hand – and what it was like to be on its bad side.

“I remember thinking, ‘Gosh, I want to be on the right side of that’ in different markets that are going to be disrupted as things started moving online.”

Electric vehicles in Scotland

When discussing the EV market, Tigar says that infrastructure and uptake are likely to increase over the next few years.

The current crises gripping the world, such as the Ukraine war pushing up fuel prices, will start altering people’s perception of EV usage. Tigar says he sees many of his customers becoming increasingly worried about how much it’s costing them to fill their tanks.

“Honestly a day doesn’t go past when someone says, ‘I just can’t live with paying £100 every time I fill up my car,’ so I think there’s a real push towards electric cars away from that current pain point.”

As well as this, EVs bring with them tax advantages, particularly those that can be accessed through a company. People can get a new car for the same budget as their used current diesel or petrol vehicle.

“What we’re finding is something like 60-70% of the electric vehicles currently on the road are company cars, so it’s a staggeringly high number, whereas normally that would be somewhere like 10% if that. What loveelectric is doing and what others are doing in the space is proving to be an important catalyst for the adoption of EVs,” Tigar comments.

He continues: “I believe that the continued favourable tax environment helps people overcome those switching costs, and that is important. The vehicles are also getting better and better, and the range is increasing all the time.

“There’s now at least 10 makes and models that have over a 300-mile range, which is sufficient for virtually everyone,” Tigar says.

But will the infrastructure be there in 2030 to support the uptake of EVs that the UK government expects? Tigar says yes.

“I think right now it is. Like any marketplace dynamics, you always must calibrate the supply and the demand and it’s always a dynamic thing.”

He adds: “You don’t want too much demand or too much supply. You want to calibrate that perfectly.”

Looking to the future

Over the last few years, the uptake of EVs in Scotland has been boosted both by the affordability of second-hand vehicles and reinforced charging infrastructure.

The Scottish Government has also pledged to do more to increase the uptake of electric vehicles, boosting infrastructure and funding, whilst the UK Government has set a target of no fossil fuel vehicles being sold in Britain by 2030.

When questioned about whether he believes this is achievable, Tigar, again, says he believes it is: “I think the adoption has surpassed everyone’s expectations, this year in particular.”

He adds: “It doesn’t mean that every single car and van on the road is going to be electric by 2030. It’s only seven or eight years away from all new cars being electric vehicles. But what does that look like in terms of the total car park and the total cars on the road?

“2% of all vehicles on the road are fully electric. Even when that [the rules] comes into place, every new vehicle sold needs to be electric, but obviously, people will still be running used ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles for a period.”

Tigar says the key thing moving forward will be shoring up charging infrastructure quickly, and that by 2030, it will be at the level it needs to be.

“The world will have changed completely. I think people that have resisted for a long time to switch will probably feel quite a lot of pressure to make that switch, even if it’s getting a used EV as opposed to used petrol or diesel car. I do think it could be even sooner than that.”

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But there is a question that remains – once we begin the EV switch, what happens to the ICE vehicles left behind?

“Every car has a lifecycle, and I would imagine that most people that have an ICE vehicle probably won’t be able to sell them all that easily, and they will eventually get to the end of their usable life and that will be that” Tigar muses.

“It is the same with every single car on the road, so I don’t think that 2030 makes any difference to the fact that there’s a terminal date for every vehicle.

“I think the point is that it just makes the transition to electric vehicles have a clearer milestone, which I think is important for consumer confidence. Otherwise, everyone will inevitably just delay, and we can’t afford to do that,” Tigar says.

He concludes: “Ultimately, the answer is that, if people don’t need a vehicle, then they shouldn’t have a vehicle. Get an electric bike or electric scooter or get just a bike or walk! I think that is the answer.

“A lot of people still need a vehicle, and if they do, then clearly the best choice is an electric one.”

Fintech Summit 2022

Our next conference is the Fintech Summit, held live and in-person at Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth on 15th September.

Now in its ninth year, the Fintech Summit is Scotland’s largest annual gathering for financial technology professionals, providing an opportunity to reconnect with industry peers, build new relationships and explore the latest developments across the sector.

To secure your free place at the Summit, please visit: www.fintech-summit.co.uk