Bismut philippe

Vehicle funding and management company Arval is launching a new electric vehicle leasing service across Europe as part of its growth strategy for 2018 and beyond.

The announcement comes on the back of strong fleet growth of 7.4% in 2017 that saw its fleet reach more than 1.1 million vehicles globally.

The strongest growth came in France (+5%), Italy (+10%) and Spain (+15%), as well as double-digit growth in countries including Austria (+10%), Belgium (+12%), Czech Republic (+12%), Luxembourg (+22%), Poland (+19%), Russia (+12%), Turkey (+16%) and the Latin America region (+13%).

Arval also expanded its global network with a launch in Norway during 2017, which leads the adoption of low-emission vehicles in Europe. Alternative fuel vehicles accounted for 52% of total car sales in Norway last year.

In order to support clients in their energy transition strategy, Arval is partnering with Renault, Nissan and charging solutions provider NewMotion to offer an EV vehicle leasing service, which also covers home and workplace installation, integrated payment solutions and digital services (such as vehicle booking, consumption tracking and charging point location).

Customers are also offered a trial period, so drivers can confirm that an EV is right for them, while a petrol/diesel vehicle replacement option is offered for short periods such as holidays to offset any range anxiety concerns for electric cars.

The service will launch in France, followed by the UK, Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands (with another nine countries from the second quarter of 2018).

Philippe Bismut, Arval CEO, said: “Our strong expertise, unique range of added value services, and the positive market trends give us great confidence that we will continue to significantly grow in our main segments and geographical areas in 2018.

“In fast evolving environments, our clients’ needs evolve permanently. I strongly believe that these new ground-breaking offers, based on our digital know-how, will help our clients take up their challenges and make a sustainable decisive contribution to the green transformation of our sector.”

In addition to its environmental focus, Arval is also committing €1 million to a global initiative aimed at enabling its local entities to showcase their support for road safety, through training and events, and helping related charities with mobility services such as car donations.

The developments follow a range of launches that took place last year, including ‘Arval Car Sharing’, which allows employees to access a shared car for a pre-reserved period of time, and ‘My Arval’, a full digital suite of services for its customers and drivers.

Last year, Arval also launched Total Fleet, which will  free Arval’s clients working with multi-supply schemes from having to aggregate data from multiple sources.

It is hosted, maintained and managed by an independent IT service provider. Following a request from customers, the clients’ lessors can access Total Fleet directly to upload their fleet data. The data and the reports are only accessible to the clients.

Neither Arval, nor other lessors, have access to the data or to the consolidated view.

Arval is fully-owned by BNP Paribas and is present in 29 countries. It is a founding member of the Element-Arval Global Alliance, the longest-standing strategic alliance in the fleet management industry with three million vehicles in 50 countries.

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