2026 Starts Now: Why Every OEM Needs Affinity in Their Sales Toolkit

As the 2026 planning cycle begins, Fleet and Sales Directors across every major OEM are facing a familiar challenge: ambitious sales targets, tighter budgets, and rising pressure to accelerate EV adoption. The question is no longer if growth can be achieved, but how it can be achieved more intelligently.

While company car programmes and salary sacrifice have powered recent success, the most forward-thinking OEMs are already expanding their focus. They are adding a third channel to their 2026 sales mix that combines reach, control, and zero cost. That channel is Affinity.

Planning for Growth in 2026

Fleet News and other industry sources continue to highlight the same trend: budgets are tightening while expectations rise. Fleet decision-makers are balancing cost control with electrification and employee engagement, and OEM sales leaders are being asked to deliver more with less. This combination of shrinking budgets and expanding targets demands smarter, more controllable routes to market.

Retail and fleet channels remain essential, and salary sacrifice will continue to grow. However, the brands gaining real traction are those that are adding new, flexible pathways to reach motivated buyers directly. Affinity delivers exactly that: a manufacturer-controlled sales channel that expands reach, maintains pricing discipline, and creates high-quality, long-term business.

The Strategic Advantage of Affinity

An Affinity Scheme allows OEMs to offer preferential terms —effectively fleet conditions —to defined groups of employees within large organisations such as NHS trusts, emergency services, retail groups, or manufacturing networks. Employees then purchase from their local dealer using PCH, PCP, HP, or outright payment, with the benefit of a manufacturer-supported discount. It is an approach that converts potential used-car buyers into new-car customers without the risk of short-term, high-discount fleet deals.

The result is high-quality business with predictable ownership cycles, typically three years or longer, and one-owner used cars with full service histories returning to the dealer network. It drives retention, repeat purchase, and advocacy, supporting the kind of sustainable sales growth that protects brand equity rather than diluting it. Affinity programmes also allow OEMs to direct activity strategically; for example, placing greater incentives on EV models to support ZEV compliance and accelerate electric adoption among trusted employee audiences.

Overcoming the Limits of Salary Sacrifice

Salary sacrifice remains a valuable channel, but it is not universal. The majority of UK employers do not currently offer a scheme, leaving millions of potential customers untouched. Even where schemes exist, structural limitations restrict growth. Employees must often wait three to six months before they become eligible, meaning early opportunities are lost. If they leave their role, vehicles must typically be returned or bought out, causing disruption and customer churn. Changes to salary during maternity, paternity, or long-term leave can make deductions difficult to maintain, and contract rigidity means drivers have no choice beyond a single lease structure, with no option for PCP or outright purchase. And often vehicle choice is limited in salary sacrifice schemes which puts many models out of reach for employees.

New scheme approvals can take months, delaying access for willing participants, while smaller companies, charities, or public bodies may lack the HR capacity or procurement frameworks to implement schemes at all. Each of these barriers limits flexibility, and ultimately, OEM control. Affinity solves those problems by giving manufacturers direct access to employee audiences without dependency on payroll systems or HR-managed benefit platforms.

Household Reach and Brand Control

Many OEMs are now extending their Affinity programmes to include household members such as spouses, parents, children and siblings - significantly widening the sales opportunity. VPS audits every application and maintains full compliance oversight, ensuring every programme runs within agreed parameters. This flexibility allows OEMs to decide exactly how far-reaching their scheme should be while retaining governance, control, and visibility.

For legacy brands, this approach builds loyalty and repeat purchases; for new entrants, it accelerates awareness and credibility through trusted employer networks. It is a low-risk, high-value way of placing vehicles with engaged customers who become brand advocates within their workplaces and communities.

Why OEMs Are Acting Now

Affinity is not a “someday” project; it is a Q4 2025 priority for any OEM planning growth in 2026. A well-structured scheme takes around six weeks from agreement to launch, so brands that move now will enter 2026 with a live, branded platform driving incremental sales from day one.

The benefits are clear: 5–10 per cent incremental volume; full OEM control over pricing, eligibility, and model mix; improved dealer performance through integrated CRM and aftersales retention; and accelerated EV adoption through targeted incentives.

As Gary Curran, National Leasing and Rental Manager at Kia UK, explains:

“Since launching VPS Affinity, our scheme has gone from strength to strength. It’s fully managed by the VPS team, so internal resource and spend is minimal, and when it comes to managing discounts and members, we’re always in control.”

The Takeaway

2026 success will not come from doing more of the same. It will come from OEMs expanding their reach, improving business quality, and regaining control of their sales mix. Affinity does not compete with existing channels; it complements them. It is the flexible, compliant, and measurable addition that will define how growth happens next year.

VPS is already powering Affinity programmes for leading automotive brands, so why not yours?

Contact VPS to see how your 2026 plan can include the channel redefining OEM growth.