Leasing company ALD Automotive says its plans for the next five years include major growth in fleet electrification, and revolutionising its remarketing operations through a multi-cycle approach.
The firm has unveiled a new five-year strategic plan entitled Move 2025, with a headline goal of reaching around 2.3 million total contracts by 2025, up from 1.8 million in 2019.
According to CEO Tim Albertsen (pictured), the plan is also about extending the company’s reach into the wider arena of mobility.
He said: “Move 2025 is an ambitious plan which leverages the transformation that we started five years ago to seize growth opportunities that we see in the medium to long-term future.
“With this new strategic plan, ALD is positioning itself at the heart of the evolving mobility world and is strengthening its competitive edge to become a fully integrated sustainable mobility provider and the global leader in its industry.”
Included in the Move 2025 plan is major growth in fleet electrification, with a target of 30% of ALD’s new vehicle deliveries being pure EVs by 2025, on the way to 50% by 2030, with the initial target also part of a planned 40% reduction in CO2 emissions in the next five year.
ALD CFO Gilles Momper said that an important factor in this was making electrification simple and accessible for clients.
He said: “We have an end-to-end solution for EVs. Implementing an EV policy needs some specific skills to understand the more complex ecosystem around electric cars.
“Thanks to a global partnership with Chargepoint we can advise our customers on charging infrastructure and provide a global offer for their home or office charger.
“We also provide consulting on total cost analysis for our customer to help them in choosing the right solution.”
EVs are also a factor in ALD’s remarketing plans, which as deputy CEO John Saffrett explained will include a multi-cycle approach, designed to reduce the risk associated with residual values.
He said: “We believe there is a lot of positive momentum behind the idea of multi-cycle lease.
“Take the example of an EV being taken as a new company car in 2021. That vehicle generally becomes available for sale or a second lease in 2024-25.
“There are a number of restrictions being implemented in cities across Europe and around the globe that will restrict entry for historical ICE vehicles, and therefore we believe there will be a very strong demand for high-quality used EVs during this period.”
In addition to this second cycle, Saffrett explained that the emergence of services such as car sharing and ride hailing in cities created the potential for a third cycle.
He said: “The economics of [car sharing and ride hailing] struggle to be positive when new cars are being supplied into those models, especially when we talk about EVs today and the cost of those vehicles.
“However, the economics of those models become very viable if you can recycle an EV into those models, and we believe that can be a third cycle lease option for us.”
Under its growth plans, ALD is targeting new geographic markets, and also has an eye on targeting employees of companies it has existing contracts with who are not eligible for company cars themselves.
Part of this is the ALD Move app, planned for a future UK rollout, which will bring together access to other modes of transport including car sharing, ride hailing and public transport.
Saffrett said: “A large number of corporates are beginning to look at how they can transition to a more sustainable mobility offer for all of their employees, rather than just limiting it to company cars.”
