Transport & Environment (T&E)

NEW: Fossil fuel subsidies for company cars cost EU taxpayers €42 billion every year. Company cars generally receive four tax benefits: benefit-in-kind, depreciation write-offs, VAT deductions and fuel cards. These subsidies are not enjoyed by private drivers. Italy, followed by Germany, France and Poland, are the countries that subsidise polluting company cars the most through these benefits, totalling €16, €13.7, €6.4 and €6.1 billion a year respectively. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Other countries, like the UK, have much lower tax advantages for polluting company cars. The UK has also directly boosted corporate BEV uptake by giving clear incentives to companies to opt for BEVs. It’s time for governments to phase out benefits from polluting company cars and instead incentivise the uptake of BEVs in the corporate market. The European Commission recently closed its public consultation on greening corporate fleets. It should use this opportunity to establish binding 2030 electrification targets for large corporate fleets while requiring a reform of tax laws at the Member State level to incentivise the uptake of EVs and bring an end to subsidies for polluting company cars. Read the report ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ez87A2g2 #CompanyCars #GreeningCorporateFleets Wopke Hoekstra Kurt Vandenberghe Peter Van Kemseke Apostolos Tzitzikostas Pascal Canfin Valérie Devaux Michael Bloss

Congratulations to the Project SkyPower team on their report “Accelerating the take-off for e-SAF in Europe”! 🛫 The report outlines a clear flight path based on four building blocks to get first e-SAF projects to Final Investment Decisions (FID) by 2025: 🏛️ Regulatory certainty on e-SAF mandates & penalties to ensure a secure foundation for investments. 💸 Public funding targeted to e-fuels to bridge the cost premium through industry taxes and carbon pricing revenues (like the ETS). 🤝 Long-term offtake agreements to ensure revenue stability for e-SAF producers. 🛡️ De-risking mechanisms to tackle the unique challenges of first-of-a-kind projects such as low-interest loans, loan guarantees, and risk-sharing mechanisms The #CleanIndustrialDeal is an unique opportunity to finally address the remaining headwinds to unleash the full potential of e-fuels. 🌬️✈️ By ensuring adequate and targeted funding and measures to e-fuels in the aviation sector, the #CleanIndustrialDeal could establish a clean European value chain, create sustainable jobs, and secure a credible decarbonisation flight path for the aviation sector. 💪 It is also inspiring to see such a diverse coalition of industry leaders, including Air France-KLM, easyJet, Norwegian and DHL, supporting the report and calling for e-SAF acceleration. 🚀 Let’s work together to ensure that e-SAF takes-off because if our final destination is a decarbonised aviation, e-SAF must be part of the flight path! 🛫 👉 Take a look at the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dHTt-Tbh

NEW: The Draghi Report estimates that €40bn in annual investments will be needed between 2031 and 2050 for shipping's energy transition.  T&E and European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) call for the EU to ensure that clean fuels and green shipping are manufactured in Europe. https://lnkd.in/e7ZWdY56 Faïg Abbasov Inesa Ulichina Apostolos Tzitzikostas Mohammed Chahim Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy Tiemo Wölken Jutta Paulus Bas Eickhout Wopke Hoekstra Dan Jørgensen Magda Biernat-Kopczyńska Virginijus Sinkevičius

NEW: Using electric vehicles to store energy and feed back into the grid could soon save Europe’s energy companies and motorists billions of euros a year. New research by Fraunhofer ISI and ISE for T&E shows that EVs equipped with bidirectional charging can act as ‘batteries on wheels’ that draw down electricity at times of oversupply and give back when demand is higher. This so-called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology can save the EU’s energy systems €22 annually by 2040. This would be an 8% reduction on the cost of building and running the EU energy system. Europe can reap the benefits of V2G technology almost for free as the additional costs of bidirectional onboard chargers and wall-boxes would be offset by reduced electricity bills within a few months. But this potential may not be realised without common EU standards to ensure interoperability between all EVs and chargers. Learn more about how V2G could transform Europe’s energy system at the link in our comments. Fraunhofer ISI Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme ISE #V2G #Charging

Next week the Commissioner hearings will begin. This is a crucial moment to make sure that clean transport priorities like the electrification of corporate fleets are delivered by the new Commission. Stef Cornelis explains the problem with polluting company cars being subsidised through generous tax incentives 👇 It’s time the EU phased out these subsidies by mandating an electrification target for large fleets be established by 2025. Read our report for more 👉 https://lnkd.in/ez87A2g2 Apostolos Tzitzikostas Wopke Hoekstra #CorporateCars #GreeningCorporateFleets

Attended last week's Fleet Europe #FleetEuropeDays in Milan. Some great speakers incl CEOs of Europe’s biggest leasing companies. Why is this so relevant? Leasing companies own fleets up to 3.5 million cars. They are a key player in EU's transition to EVs. My main takeaways: 1️⃣ Credit where credit is due. Compared to previous years leasing companies talked up EVs in a much more positive way. Ayvens encouraged consumers to opt for BEVs and smaller EVs while making clear that hydrogen won’t play a big role or that biofuels are not a sustainable solution. Arval BNP Paribas Group stressing that charging infra is increasing at a rapid pace. Important that leasing companies send these positive messages. 2️⃣ Big leasing companies are going into 2nd hand leasing of EVs, keeping the car after the first cycle instead of selling it. This is for me the biggest takeaway of the day. With this strategy, they can manage residual values of EVs much better. (And IMO no longer an excuse why leasing shouldn’t go faster on EV). Leaseco's can also keep the client longer. Shows that EV leasing can also create new opportunities for them! 3️⃣ More transparency on battery state of health, extend the battery warranty and better communicate favourable TCO were mentioned a lot as important leavers to further increase consumer confidence in used EVs. Fully agree with this. I think NGOs, the leasing sector and fleets should do more together on this. So let’s discuss further. 4️⃣ Leasing companies can also do more themselves to take away the uncertainties on used EVs. Why not start massive awareness campaigns and commercials on the fact that EV batteries are still performing very well after three years? 5️⃣ Leasing CEO panel can and should be more challenging. People on stage consistently agree with each other while we should have a more in-depth discussion between the sector’s biggest competitors. 6️⃣ Several leasing CEOs supported 100% EV target 2035 set by the EU. Good but this is of course about carmakers, not the leasing companies themselves. Still waiting for a leasing company to finally show green leadership about what they can do: commit to a 100% EV target way before 2035 and publicly support green company car reforms. Eg a leasing CEO writing an oped in Les Echos or Politico supporting a green tax shift or EU EV targets for fleets. This is still not happening which is disappointing. 7️⃣ An executive board member “thanked” green NGOs (i.e. us) for telling leasing companies to do more on EVs. They can be reassured that we will continue to hold them accountable and we’ll keep pushing them to show true green leadership 😉 . Overall I think leasing industry should be more open to critical voices and create a platform for a real debate with NGOs etc. Everyone (including the audience) would benefit from this. Lack of real discussion is IMO passé.

Electric vans are set to overtake diesel and petrol models by 2026. And, by 2027, they’ll even be cheaper to buy. This means that all European capitals could have what they need to create zero-emission zones for freight. We spoke to some van drivers around Europe who have made the switch to electric vans to hear how the change has improved their experience for the better. Read our latest report for more on the roll out of electric vans across European cities ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ej8JsVWB TRANSECO Ouest DPD UK E.ON Clean Cities

Pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson and Merck caused the entire sector reviewed in the Travel Smart Emissions Tracker to lag behind in reducing business travel emissions last year due to their off-the-charts levels of flying. As leaders in the global economy, these pharmaceutical companies have a responsibility to set a target to reduce their business flying and serve as a model for the other biggest sectors. Read the analysis from Travel Smart Campaign 👇

Very much enjoyed speaking at the Fleet Europe Days in Milan and what regulations will drive the electrification of the fleet market in Europe. My key messages were the following: 1️⃣ Battery electric cars are by far the most efficient. Hydrogen and efuels are and will be a niche solution. 2️⃣ Fleets can and should be the main drivers of the EV shift but they are not. The private market is electrifying faster. 3️⃣ The EV market is not facing a crisis. We predicted this dip. With EU CO2 standards kicking in next year, more affordable models will enter the market. In 2025 the question won't be do I buy an EV or petrol but what type of EV do I want. 4️⃣ Tariffs on Chinese EVs will give EU OEMs a breather but won't stop the Chinese from producing in Europe in the long-run. 5️⃣ Leasing and remarketing are worried about residual values of EVs. On the regulatory front there is a lot we can do to tackle this: extend the warranty of batteries beyond the current 8 years, develop a standarised testing procedure to measure battery state of health etc. The solutions for this lie in Europe. Happy to work together with partners to get some movement on this. 6️⃣ Europe is thinking about setting EV targets for large fleets (this is a good thing!). This will massively impact the uptake of new and used EVs in the corporate and private market. 7️⃣ My message to the audience was that we still miss green leadership in the leasing sector. When is the first leasing company committing to go 100% electric? Where are CEOs calling for a green tax shift for company cars or welcoming EV targets for fleets? Based on the reactions afterwards, I felt many people in the room appreciated the fact that I challenged some of the common believes that are currently circling around. Also big thanks to Jesper Lyndberg Sam Heymans Dr. Christof Engelskirchen Ian Hucker for the great panel debate. Looking forward to next events and discussion with fleets, leasing and e-mob sector as a whole! Thanks Johan Verbois for the invite! Ps: you can find some of my slides below

Drivers of SUV company cars receive high fossil fuel subsidies via company car taxation, with a tax benefit of up to €8,900 a year not seen by private drivers. These tax incentives are causing an explosion of expensive polluting SUVs in the corporate market. Companies are registering twice as many SUVs as private households, subsidised by €15 billion in taxpayer funds. Not only do polluting company cars benefit from enormous subsidies, they are lagging behind in the EU's green transition effort. In the first half half of 2024, 13.8% of all new private registrations were BEVs in the EU, compared to just 12.4% for company cars. EU countries have an opportunity to support the Green Deal by eliminating generous tax breaks for polluting cars to reduce emissions and boost demand for EVs in the corporate sector. Read the full report at the link in our comments. #CompanyCars #GreeningCorporateFleets