Select Lease by Mobilize sets sights on FN50 top 5

Business partnerships often promise a lot but do not always deliver. Think Daimler and Chrysler, U2 and Apple or Ford and Kwik Fit.

Mobilize Financial Services, the funding division of Renault Group, and leasing broker Select Car Leasing, which formed a strategic partnership last year, are confident they have the necessary ingredients to enable both companies to accelerate their significant growth aspirations. They have no doubt they will deliver.

Together, they have launched Select Lease by Mobilize, which supplanted the Mobilize Financial Services brand in last year’s FN50, while still maintaining each stakeholder’s individual presences in their traditional markets.

For Mobilize Financial Services (MFS), which continues to offer white label finance via Renault/Nissan dealerships, the alignment enables it to accelerate its fledging all-marque car and van leasing solutions for the business sector.

Select Car Leasing, meanwhile, was looking to accelerate its own growth in the market. Despite building one of the UK’s largest leasing brokers in just two decades, managing around 80,000 vehicles, joint founders Mark Tongue and James O’Malley were eager to expand the business further.

“We are just scratching the surface,” Tongue said.

The MFS investment – it takes a 36.6% stake in Select Car Leasing, while Tongue and O’Malley acquire 15% in Select Lease by Mobilize - provides the springboard for expansion and helps to de-risk the two men, while not diluting their operational independence. It also adds another funder to their panel, broadening the offering to customers.

Select Lease by Mobilize does not represent a line in the sand for MFS; it’s merely the continuation of a strategy introduced in 2018 when the organisation, traditionally strong in retail finance, recognised the market was migrating towards fleet.

“We needed to be multi-brand with a fully-fledged lease product,” chief executive officer Alice Altemaire told Fleet News at the MFS UK head office, which sits adjacent to Renault in Maple Cross.

“So we built relationships with brokers, partnering with 20, and developed our position in fleet. We were financing a bit of everything, but we didn’t properly service multi-brand. Ultimately, we thought we needed to be more sophisticated and more multi-brand, and that’s how the Select Lease by Mobilize project started.”

While Mobilize had robust funding, good understanding of electric vehicles via Renault and Nissan and a high level of market knowledge, the position of the brand in the wider fleet market was relatively unknown.

The company had two options: build from scratch or partner with someone who could bring the experience and exposure via a recognised customer journey.

It chose the latter.

“When we started discussions with Mark and James, we had the capital power and they had the brand relationships,” Altemaire said. “So we joined forces to build a business.

“The key is the procurement and manufacturer relationships that Select Car Leasing has. As partners, we can have joint discussions, giving us access to better deals.”

Altemaire is at pains to point out that Select Lease by Mobilize is not new to the industry. “It’s a name which shows the joint DNA of both companies, but we wanted the heritage; it’s not a new company without a track record,” she said.

“We have the experience and the service levels – our credibility comes from the parent companies.”

Select Lease by Mobilize has sprung from MFS’s historic strengths in the private and SME sectors to envelope the larger fleets with its new multi-brand offering. In the coming months, it will also launch a salary sacrifice product to further strengthen its appeal in the corporate market.

In February 2024, it introduced a direct sales team to boost its presence in the corporate sector, while MFS’s broad global and European portfolio opens the door to multinational fleet operators.

In the UK, the 35,000 leased fleet (already a 9% rise on the FN50 figures reported in November 2023), consists of 63% private to 27% fleet, and remains dominated by the three in-house brands, Renault, Nissan and Dacia.

“It is a good time to get into the market because fleet registrations are growing and the manufacturers are looking for more partners,” said Altemaire. “But to have credibility, we have to be multi brand and to take an impartial position to the conversations with fleets.”

The approach isn’t entirely alien to the business culture, according to Altemaire.

“We know how to do this because we have served Renault and Nissan for more than 20 years and they also have a competitive position,” she said. “We service both in the interests of the customer.”

Altemaire believes the company will continue to grow in the broker market, but the biggest potential comes from direct sales.

“We are small, and the fleet market is wide, so the opportunity to grow is immense,” she said. “Salary sacrifice and electric vehicles are both massive opportunities.”

Salary sacrifice will also help the company to stay on course with its sustainability commitment by enrichening the BEV mix of funded cars (currently 10%).

It has a wealth of knowledge here, thanks to the likes of the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe, both early BEV launches in the UK.

“The customers’ needs are different, the price is different and the advice is different,” Altemaire said.

Select Lease by Mobilize offers finance for home charge points within one contract for simplicity. But its biggest USP is the extensive dataset on battery management and residual values.

“It’s been the biggest challenge, but we have the historical data on RVs, battery performance and refurbishment, as well as remarketing,” Altemaire said. “All these aspects we understand; over the last 10 years, we have remarketed a lot of used electric vehicles.”

Cars account for the lion’s share of her fleet, at 85%. However, Select Lease by Mobilize has been developing its proposition with van brokers and expects to grow that part of its business too, albeit at a pace matched by its car aspirations.

“We want to do both segments,” Altemaire said. “We also do a bit of conversions.”

Select Lease by Mobilize intends to have a full suite of products in its locker, ready for launch when the time is right.

Two examples are subscriptions and used car leasing. Bipi Car is a flexible all-inclusive subscriptions solution which has launched in Spain but is still niche in the UK.

“But it could grow, and if it does, we are there,” Altemaire said.

Likewise, used car leasing, which is a more affordable option and develops the value chain with a second lease. “It is limited in numbers, but it has the potential to grow, and, again, we are there. It is already live with brokers,” Altemaire said.

Used leasing also enables Select Lease by Mobilize to control the full lifecycle, which is part of its strategy. Retaining the asset within the portfolio to put back into the market with a new customer on a second lease de-risks the residual value.

With the lack of support from the Government to stimulate consumer demand for used BEVs, it still has its challenges, but Altemaire believes salary sacrifice could alleviate some of the pressure by extending into a used car proposition.

“Our experience through our own (in-house) car scheme is that there is huge interest in used EVs. They are better sized and equipped vehicles than they could usually have, so a better proposition, and that supports the RV – it’s natural remarketing,” she said.

Retaining full life control over the vehicle, and de-risking the RV, could also help to make the first lease more competitive, although Altemaire stresses that it’s still “early days” for that product.

She added: “Future remarketing will be more sophisticated for leasing companies. It will change from first route to franchised dealer, second route to auction. It gives more options.”

Over the next few years, the strategy deployed by Select Lease by Mobilize will see it continue the diversification of the brand to lay the foundations for a bold long-term growth plan in both private and public sectors.

Currently number 13th in the FN50, Altemaire has her sights on a lofty target which will require a four-fold expansion in the funded fleet.

“We want to be top five in the UK,” she said.

With Select Car Leasing possessing similarly bullish aspirations, this business partnership is poised to become one of the most successful fleet alliances of all time.