Although the firm is yet to lease any pure electric vehicles to its customers, the two cars are being driven by Ogilvie Fleet employees and are being loaned to customers as the company sees growing potential for such vehicles amongst fleets.

Ogilvie Fleet sales and marketing director Nick Hardy said: ‘The electric vehicle market is in its infancy, but we are confident that zero emission models will have a role to play within the operating profile of some fleets.

‘It is therefore important that as a leasing company we have practical day-to-day experience of electric cars and can share our evaluation with customers and their company car drivers as well as enabling them to put the models through their paces.’

Hardy said interest in the Tesla models was massive.

He explained: ‘They are the most sought after cars we have made available on our demonstration fleet for many years. Additionally, when the cars are parked at our offices people are walking in off the street asking for information about them. The Teslas are receiving a lot of attention.’

However he added: ‘While the market for plug-in hybrids is growing – some of our own staff are selecting them as their company cars – the pure electric vehicle market has yet to take off and, we believe, will remain niche at least from a company car perspective until list prices fall, the practicality of the models increases and the recharging infrastructure expands.

‘Nevertheless, we definitely plan to add more electric vehicles to our own demonstration fleet in the future because we believe that the manufacturers and the recharging companies will get to grips with those issues and pure electric vehicles will become more acceptable. Therefore, it is vital that as a vehicle supplier we have first hand product knowledge.’