£250m owed by collapsed EV leasing firm

Fast-growing electric car subscription service Onto owed £250m when it crashed into administration in September.

The wheels came off when its investors declined to add to the £340m that had been put into the company in six years, and attempts to find a buyer stalled during the due diligence process.

Onto had more than 7,000 electric vehicles in its fleet at its peak in 2022 but this had shrunk by one-third as its problems mounted. It had 3,840 cars with customers paying a subscription when the business collapsed.

Rob Jolly and Dannan O’Meachair launched Warwick-based Onto in 2016 and it was named as the fourth fastest-growing UK tech business in Deloitte’s Fast 50 list last year as annual revenues grew to £34m.

Gavin Maher, Johnathan Lees, and Ian Wormleighton from Teneo were appointed as administrators to Onto Holdings and four related companies on September 11.

61 of the 139 staff were made redundant and administrators have continued to trade the business while searching for a buyer for the business or its assets, and at the end of October had received 15 indicative offers that it was working through.

Onto’s challenges had accelerated when the value of its fleet fell from £169m in November 2022 to £97m in July as the residual values of electric vehicles failed to meet expectations.

This resulted in the fleet’s value falling well below the £135m the company still owed on the vehicles. Legal & General and other investors put in £31m between April and June this year but declined to put more money in when Onto needed cash to avoid breaching its loan covenants.

The administrator’s report shows £82.4m is owed to secured creditors, including Lombard, Intertrust Trustees, Alter Domus Trustees and HEF, which is expected to be repaid in full. Unsecured creditors are owed £164.5m, but administrators warned this “could be materially higher” as more claims are made.