Planned EU legislation, due to be put forward by the Commission in March, looks set to speed up the adoption of electric cars and vans by company fleets. It’s been estimated that such legislation could create demand for an additional two million EVs on European roads by 2030.
Pressure to ramp up sales
Significantly, such a move could deliver, by itself, as much as half of the total needed cuts in transport emissions by that date. That’s according to research by environmental think-tank Transport & Environment (T&E).
All car makers are under pressure to ramp up their EV sales between now and 2030 to meet the planned emissions cuts, but thanks to resistance among car buyers in some key markets (notably Germany and, until the past couple of months, Ireland), those targets are looking farther away than ever.
However, T&E’s number-crunching suggests that if, when the new legislation is brought forward next month, it proposes that all fleet operators with more than 100 cars on their books are compelled by law to only purchase electric vehicles, it would generate such huge demand that the major European car makers would then be propelled far closer to their EV sales goals.
Could generate as much as half of the needed demand
T&E’s data shows that such a move in the fleet market would give Volkswagen 50 per cent of the sales it needs by 2030, Stellantis Group would get 54 per cent of what it needs, Renault 34 per cent, Mercedes-Benz 44 per cent, BMW 58 per cent, and Volvo 63 per cent. Basically, it would give car makers a massive leg-up, leaving them free to concentrate on persuading the remaining cohorts of private car buyers to make the EV switch.
Stef Cornelis, director electric fleets programme at T&E, says: “Today more than ever before Europe needs climate policies that also strengthen our competitiveness. Electrification targets for large fleets are doing exactly that: we ask large companies to go faster on electric and as such boost demand for more than two-million EVs made by European car manufacturers.
Affordable EVs
“Instead of lobbying to weaken emissions rules, European carmakers should advocate for a European fleets law that will actually support them in meeting their targets. A new EU law setting binding electrification targets for large fleets would clearly support EU car manufacturers' investments in electrification while bringing almost seven-million more affordable EVs onto the used car market by 2035 for private buyers. In Europe, nearly eight in ten EU citizens buy their car on the used market.”
T&E is also calling for more legislation, running in parallel, that mirrors the French ‘ecobonus’ rating for EVs, which rates and rewards the production of low-carbon electric vehicles that are using clean materials. It’s reckoned that this, if it were made part of the fleet buying legislation, would give European car makers a leg-up as it would penalise those electric cars, especially ones coming from China, which are made with less ‘green’ energy.
Stef Cornelis said: “As a next step the European Commission needs to move forward quickly by announcing binding electrification targets for large fleets. This will create investment certainty, not only for carmakers but also other key sectors such as the charging infrastructure industry in helping them to plan grid infrastructure roll-out and investments.”