The Arval Mobility Observatory Fleet Barometer 2020

Paris, 30 June 2020

The Arval Mobility Observatory is Arval’s research and intelligence platform and has become an industry reference in objectively recording and forecasting mobility trends.

Today it reveals the insights of its latest study, the 16^th Edition of its annual barometer, run between January and mid-March 2020. This year 5,600 fleet managers were interviewed across 20 countries.

Since its inception, the annual barometer has focused on mid and long term trends, so even if the Covid-19 outbreak occurred just after the survey, it will have only a temporary impact on some of the statements expressed through the survey, if any. The 2020 barometer underpins once again the intentions of the market in terms of development of alternative mobility solutions, energy mix and telematics are still strong in the mid and long term.

In 2020, the Arval Mobility Observatory Fleet Barometer puts forward four main trends:

- #1 The shift towards electric vehicles continues to accelerate. Nevertheless, diesel and petrol will continue as important powertrain options in the foreseeable future. Across all countries and companies surveyed, 61% of companies have already implemented or are considering to implement within the next three years alternative technologies in their energy mix;  The technologies that are most considered for  the next three years are hybrid vehicles (HEV), plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV). 34% of companies have already implemented one or more of these alternative technologies in their energy mix. Brazil (49%) leads the deployment of alternative technologies followed by Norway (48%) and the Netherlands (47%) For those companies not yet considering implementing these alternatives, the main barriers against PHEV and BEV are the purchase price and the lack of public charging points. Diesel is anticipated to still represent almost half of the fleet mix in 3 years, petrol 29%.

- #2 Increasing implementation of alternative mobility solutions 6 out of 10 companies have already implemented alternative mobility solutions for their employees. Brazil, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium are leading the way with at least 7 out of 10 companies having already implemented solutions. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway) and countries such as Poland, Germany and Spain where less than 60% of the companies have already implemented at least one solution. The solutions already implemented are primarily focused on public transport (33%), ride sharing between employees (28%) and corporate car sharing (19%).  Conversely, bike sharing and other 2 wheels solutions are the two least implemented solutions (10%).

- #3 Operational leasing as main financing method Operational leasing is the solution most often preferred by the larger companies: 36 % of large companies and 43 % of very large companies have declared that operational leasing is the main source of financing for their vehicle fleets. The main financing method varies depending on the country. Operational leasing is more developed in Western Europe: Germany (47%), Spain (42%), the Netherlands (42%), France (39%) – particularly in the largest firms.  A continued growth potential from ownership to usership, especially in Brazil and Italy, clearly remains.

- #4 Telematics usage : Brazil, Russia and Turkey lead telematics usage  37% of the companies have implemented telematics within their fleet, with no significant difference between passenger cars and LCVs; but the penetration of these connected services increases with the size of the company (23% for the smallest companies and 54% among the largest companies). The main reason for using a telematics based solution is to locate the vehicle (43%). Then the next two most important reasons are improving operational efficiency (35%), closely followed by avoiding non permitted usage of the vehicles (32%). For those companies not yet considering implementing telematics, the top 3 barriers are concerns around the return on investment (46%), the usefulness of the data (41%) and thirdly that there is not enough resource available to manage the data effectively (36%).

“This major global study conducted in the first quarter of 2020 confirms the acceleration observed over the past two years towards more diversified mobility solutions and greener fleets. The percentage of companies already using electric motor vehicles is still low but is set to increase sharply over the next three years, to a large extent helped by the post-Covid19 measures recently announced by various governments at national and international levels”, comments Yaël Bennathan, Head of Arval Mobility Observatory at an international level.

Methodology: For this independent survey, 5 600 Fleet Manager Interviews were carried out between January and mid-March 2020 by independent research company Kantar with a mix of data collection models: a full interview conducted by phone or recruitment by telephone and a link sent to complete the survey online. The scope (20 countries), which has been extended this year, includes most of the European countries (Austria, Deutschland, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, UK, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden) plus the important fleet markets of Russia, Turkey and Brazil. The companies in scope operated at least one vehicle.

The distribution of the interviewees was as follows: 

- 33% of companies with less than 10 employees

- 20% of companies with 10 to 99 employees

- 27% of companies with 100 to 249/499/999* employees (*dependant on market)  

- 20% of companies with 250/500/1000* employees and more (*dependant on market)