More than one in four UK fleets are predicting growth within the next three years, according to research by Arval.
The leasing company found that 28% of fleets surveyed for its 2025 Arval Mobility Observatory Fleet and Mobility Barometer expected their vehicle numbers to rise, compared with 65% predicting stability, and 6% predicting a decline. However, the percentage expecting growth is down compared with 2024’s research, when it was 38%.
The situation is more polarised for car-only fleets, with 34% of these expected to grow, but 12% expected to shrink. Arval said this was more extreme than European (27% growth and 8% decrease) and global figures (29% and 8%).
Head of the Arval Mobility Observatory in the UK John Peters said: “We believe that these figures reflect some concerns about the general strength of the economy among businesses but it should also be recognised that having more than a quarter of fleets expecting to expand remains a positive outlook, and that the potential for contraction is seen to be very limited.”
The most popular reason given for expected fleet expansion, at 78%, was that the company was growing or planning new activities – a slight fall from 81% last year. In contrast, the 47% who saw fleet vehicles as a key employee attraction and retention tool was an increase from 38% last year, and 28% in 2023.
Peters said: “These are strong increases and show a growing awareness of the role of the company car in human resources terms at a time when finding and keeping the best people for your business remains a challenge.
“Building on this, growth can also be seen in the percentages who intend to propose vehicles to employees with no current company car eligibility such as salary sacrifice arrangements (43%, up from 37%), and car sharing (43%, up from 35%).
“Again, this is suggestive of an increased role for the car as a benefit and probably linked to higher awareness and adoption of salary sacrifice initiatives.”
