Leaseurope’s Letter Calls on EU to Withdraw LDV Corporate Fleet Mandates

Dear Commission President von der Leyen,

We are writing to express our deep concern that a European Commission proposal requiring the mandatory purchase of Zero Emission Vehicles, either through national or European targets, will act as a further drag on the competitiveness of companies in Europe. At stake is the European automotive industry and its surrounding mobility ecosystem, with millions of industrial and service jobs and a vital cog in Europe’s economy.

The organizations signing this letter represent the upstream manufacturing of vehicles and the downstream purchase and operation within fleets, or as part of the everyday movement of employees, products, equipment and services in companies. We represent European companies of all sizes and across all productive sectors of the European economy. Corporate vehicles are an intrinsic part of the European economy, enabling the movement of people, goods and services throughout every hour of every day across the continent.

Today, companies are leading the switch to electric vehicles in Europe, more so than individual vehicle owners. Each of us has demonstrated a commitment to move to cleaner mobility as fast as the incentive frameworks and enabling conditions allow. The main obstacles for the acceleration of the uptake of ZEVs is a combination of managing the fleet Total Cost of Ownership paired with a lack of sufficient charging infrastructure suitable to all corporate use cases, for passenger and light commercial vehicles throughout Europe, and consequently a growing but still too slow demand from consumers. This is compounded by grid capacity and infrastructure permitting issues, and the difficulty of bringing sufficient power to company locations, especially for larger-scale fleet deployments. We respectfully and urgently request that you focus on the powers and the resources of the Commission, working closely with the Member States, on the removal of these obstacles that will greatly help accelerate corporate ZEV uptake in Europe.

An obligation to procure a mandatory share of zero-emission vehicles as part of the automotive package to be presented in December, would be highly damaging. Procuring ZEVs at the levels frequently suggested, would be financially crippling and leave companies with one of two choices, possibly both: retaining older vehicles for longer and/or reducing new vehicle purchases. This will result in a decreasing number of registrations of new vehicles and will undermine companies’ ability to serve customers or fulfil essential employee, service and delivery functions. These dynamics will further hurt the competitiveness of European vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers as well as fleet operators at an already challenging economic time.

The clear lessons of the European countries with the fastest ZEV uptake is that a combination of comprehensive incentive measures and investment in enabling conditions over a sustained period of time is the recipe for success. None of these countries have resorted to purchase mandates. Adequately incentivizing the uptake of second-hand ZEVs is absolutely essential to address massive over-supply and to stimulate new vehicle demand. A highly damaging market intervention across the EU27 that ignores these lessons and delays new vehicle purchases will deliver the very opposite of the Commission’s stated goals of improving the competitiveness of European companies and driving more sustainable and affordable mobility. Regulatory efforts should focus on creating enabling conditions, notably for the charging infrastructure network and the development of a robust ZEV used market.

We respectfully ask that you reconsider the adoption of this proposal and instead work with Member States and companies to replicate the best practices and investment in enabling conditions that will enable us to sustainably green our fleets faster – across all EU Member States. Our common goal must be to secure the economic strength of the EU, the jobs associated with it and a sustainable path to affordable and fit-for-purpose corporate e-mobility.

Yours sincerely,