INNOVATION and social responsibility lie at the heart of a York company’s bids for glory at The Press Business Awards.

Fleet management firm Autohorn has stressed its pride in its heritage and its ambitions for the future in its entries for the Business Innovation of the Year and the Socially Responsible Business of the Year categories.

The company has been trading for more than 20 years, launching out of a tiny York office and now having a new site under construction.

“We now believe it is the time for us to be pushing for change within our industry, especially considering the cost of our success in the societal issues caused by the industry. We can guarantee more families and businesses cheaper vehicles that they will be able to change every few years. This generates a huge amount of carbon dioxide but has also made cars a disposable object instead of a luxury.

“Luckily, technology has progressed to the point that in a few short years we could be on our way to undoing, or at least drastically reducing the damage caused by the leasing and automotive industries.

“Just this week we had a driverless Tesla cruising around on our office grounds producing no emissions; in fact it was producing cleaner air than the air around it.

“We cannot ignore the changes that are to come, and we are working towards a cleaner, more socially responsible business model,” Autohorn said.

“As of May we have joined a Government initiative pledging to make realistic progress towards increasing the number of electric vehicles on the roads. As one of the first Go Ultra Low companies we are aspiring to make five per cent of our fleet electric vehicles by 2020.”

A range of electric vehicles had been offered at incremental discounts - “the longer the customer keeps the vehicles the cheaper we make it for them”. It added: “By 2030 we hope to see owning a vehicle become an outdated desire; instead green, self-driving, publicly-available, electric vehicles will line the streets making our cities cleaner, safer and more accessible for everyone.”