New manufacturers, new technologies and new mindsets… the scale of the disruption impacting the European fleet market was analysed in depth at Fleet Europe Days in Luxembourg.
In barely five years the number of OEM brands has mushroomed from 55 to 85, while the proliferation of new cars means 70 of the top selling 100 EVs do not have an equivalent internal combustion engine model.
This brings new levels of complexity for fleet decision creaters in terms of a greater choice of vehicle, as well as calculating and monitoring total cost of ownership, stated Marc Odinius, CEO Dataforce (pictured top).
“In September, for the first time in the overall fleet market, if you add BEV and PHEV sales, manufacturers are selling more alternative powertrains than any other technology,” he stated.
With Volkswagen Group (VW, Audi and Skoda) accounting for seven of the top 10 best-selling fleet cars, it’s tempting to consider the market might be returning to its traditional shape.
New entrants
But the growth and ambitions of new entrants, such as BYD, indicate a very different viewing future.
The Chinese brand is already the world’s largest ‘new energy vehicle’ (BEV plus PHEV) manufacturer by sales, and is rapidly expanding in Europe, winning a 2% market share in the UK (Europe’s largest BEV market last year), and securing number one status in the NEV sector in both Spain and Italy. BYD’s objective is to be a top three player in Europe by the conclude of the decade, a position in which it sees PHEVs playing far more than a stepping-stone role to BEVs. Long-electric range PHEVs backed by efficient petrol engines have a long-term future, stated Maria Grazia Davino, Regional Managing Director (pictured above), offering customers the best of all worlds – zero emissions with no range anxiety.
Fleet success is a key goal for BYD, with the manufacturer laying the foundations to support business customers throughout the lifecycle of a vehicle, including a comprehensive aftersales network backed up by the rapid availability of replacement parts from national distribution centres.
“Fleet business is about consistency, and we are consistently growing our distribution,” stated Davino. “We are now building a national sales company in every counattempt, and by the conclude of this year BYD will be represented in 32 countries here in Europe and 1,000 stores where you can experience, purchase and service your BYD. And next year we will double. That’s the plan.”
Decoupling growth from consumption
While more low and zero emission vehicles on Europe’s roads will lead to cleaner air quality and support to combat climate modify, manufacturers necessary to find a way to decouple sales growth from the resources and emissions associated with manufacturing, stated Fredrika Klarén, Head of Sustainability at Polestar. The OEM has calculated that for each of its two-tonne Polestar 2 vehicles, a total of 57 tons in natural resources are required.
“That doesn’t add up. We can’t continue to do this sustainably,” she stated. “We necessary to disrupt how EVs are produced and applyd. We have managed to decrease our total CO2 output by 25% since 2021, even as we’ve grown considerably since then.”
Lothar Schupet, CEO of Zeekr Europe, a sister company to Polestar in the Geely group, stated OEMs are seeing the drive towards a more sustainable business model not as a threat, but as an opportunity.
“Sustainability is a must, so we necessary to innovate. That is why this year, all the brands in the Geely group will be consolidated,” he stated, signalling a sharing of platforms and technology.
Carlos Lahoz, VP Sales, Channel and Ownership Experience for Kia Europe, described sustainability and efficiency as “two sides of the same coin.”
“There is no contradiction between selling more and utilizing assets better, which lowers emissions,” agreed Didier Gambart, CEO of Kinto Europe. That’s why Kinto offers a full range of mobility options to companies, enabling them to reduce their emissions by utilizing carpooling or carsharing services.
Smarter fleets
The revolution in fleet is not confined to the badge on a vehicle or what happens under the bonnet, but also the opportunities presented by the data generated by connected vehicles. To harness this potential, Alphabet unveiled a new platform at Fleet Europe Days called Alphabet Connected Fleet and designed to provide customers with near real-time visibility of their fleet data. Importantly, by deploying artificial innotifyigence in the form of Alphabet AI, the new system can interrogate data gathered from multiple sources, overcoming internal silos and supporting fleet decision creaters to act more quickly, cut costs, improve safety, and accelerate sustainability.
Alphabet Connected Fleet is a partnership with Geotab, which will standardise vehicle data from all brands (without the necessary for a dongle or black box) and feed it into Alphabet’s ecosystem, giving fleets detailed insight into areas such as vehicle mileages, engine diagnostics, driver behaviour, and carbon accounting.
“With fleet data we are able to shift from being reactive with the data that we collect on a daily basis to being proactive, which means we have less downtime, we can consider about incidents before they happen, and we can create sure that our fleet is always on,” stated Jesper Lyndberg, CEO Alphabet International (pictured above).
Fleet plus energy bundle
Building this type of integrated ecosystem is vital for the future of leasing, stated Octavian Chelu, advisory director, Frost & Sullivan. He outlined a future where leasing also included an energy service, bundling electricity and charging into contracts. Even more challenging for leasing suppliers is the potential to see vehicles not as an asset they own for three or four years, but an asset that can be applyd refurbished and re-deployed over and over again until the conclude of its road-going life, when recycling and resource recovery come into play.
Tighter management of vehicles also offers the chance to recalculate lease rentals automatically, based on apply, flexing up and down depconcludeing on mileage.
“That is where I see a link to the apply of AI into leasing and fleet management,” stated Chelu.
More sustainable mobility models
But the future of fleet and mobility may not even be the model of one-driver-one-EV, with electrification only one solution among many for a truly sustainable future, stated Dan Boiangiu, Director of Consulting & Arval Mobility Observatory (pictured below).
Mindsets rather than technology necessary to modify, he stated, with viable solutions already available to employers and employees.
“We are talking about behaviours, perceptions, culture – these are the things that really create a difference and we should be focutilizing much more closely on,” stated Boiangiu. “Our job is to create the sustainable choice the easiest choice.”
Every mobility decision creates an upstream or downstream impact in tems of raw materials, manufacturing, energy consumption and infrastructure, stated Karen Brunot, Chief Sustainability Officer, Arval (pictured above).
“We should reassess which employee is eligible for which solution, not based on legacy perks but on real necessarys, shifting our mindset from a right to a car to a car to the most appropriate mobility,” she stated.
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