How Europe can drive to an electric future

The steps required to accelerate Europe’s transition to electric vehicles are preoccupying policymakers, manufacturers and lenders.

EU-wide sales figures reveal battery electric models accounted for just 15.6% of sales during the first six months of the year, well below the thresholds required to achieve the EU’s environmental goals. Germany (+35.1%), Belgium (+19.5%), and the Netherlands (+6.1%) led the BEV market in June, but France bucked the trend with a 6.4% decline.

A report by the Centre for European Policy Studies has identified the barriers that the continent has to overcome to increase EV sales. These include a reduction in price and improved charging infrastructure.

A survey of 8,000 fleet managers found that the lack of public charging is the top challenge to EV adoption. To overcome this obstacle, leasing company Arval is integrating a smart EV route planner into its app that will calculate routes based on a vehicle’s charge level, range, and real-time station availability.

The ability to ‘roam’ with an EV is improving, with payment cards offering access to multiple charging networks. Octopus Energy’s Electroverse now connects drivers to over 1 million public EV chargers worldwide, including hubs operated by IONITY, Allego, Aral pulse, TotalEnergies, Mer, Fastned, and Powerdot.

Meanwhile, Stellantis is piloting an alternative charging solution – battery swapping – in collaboration with US battery tech firm Ample and Free2move.

The OEM plans to build a 100-strong fleet of Fiat 500e EVs, retrofitted to accept modular, swappable battery packs. Battery swapping takes five minutes, the same as a petrol refuelling, rather than the longer time to recharge batteries.

The connectivity of vehicles and construction machinery is also helping lenders better manage the vehicles they fund and provide valuable real-world usage data to clients, such as vehicle location, operator usage time, and energy consumption. Mobilisights, the Data-as-a-Service subsidiary of Stellantis, has formed a strategic partnership with machine data management platform Hiboo, to provide this data without any additional hardware installation.

Elsewhere, CaixaBank and Arval have announced the renewal of their long-standing partnership, which began in 2010, through to 2030.

CaixaBank now operates one of the largest leasing fleets in Spain, with more than 70,000 vehicles, and the two companies have set a target: to finance and market 200,000 vehicles over the next five years.

And as the EU negotiates with the USA over tariffs, CA Auto Bank has signed a strategic partnership with Hedin Sport Car AB to support the iconic US brand, Corvette, with both wholesale and retail financing solutions. The arrangement will cover 50 dealers in eight countries: Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland.