LeasePlan to make employee fleet all electric

LeasePlan Corporation has said it will transition its own employee fleet to electric cars.

It made the pledge after announcing to the UN General Assembly in New York that it will become a founding partner of EV100, a new major global transport initiative designed to fast-track the uptake of electric vehicles among corporate companies.

EV100, a new global business initiative designed to fast-track the uptake of electric vehicles (EV) and infrastructure, has been launched by The Climate Group as business and government leaders gather for Climate Week NYC.

It aims to encourage global business commitments on electric transport, with members committing to transition their petrol and diesel fleets to electric vehicle fleets by 2030. LeasePlan is one of the ten founding partners of EV100. Other EV100 partners are Unilever, Baidu, IKEA Group, HP Inc., Vattenfall, PG&E, Deutsche Post DHL and Metro AG. LeasePlan is the only automotive company to join the initiative.

CEO Tex Gunning said: “Together, we can have a significant impact: over half the cars on the road today belong to companies.

“We’re also very proud to announce that LeasePlan’s own employee fleet will be going electric, making us the first major leasing company to make the switch. Our ambition is to have all our employees driving electric cars by 2021.

“We encourage other companies to do the same: making the transition to an electric fleet is one of the easiest ways for businesses to lower their emissions and to help tackle climate change. LeasePlan is fully committed to facilitating other companies who would like to make that shift.”

The announcement marks another milestone in LeasePlan's sustainability strategy, which aims to achieve net zero emissions from its total fleet by 2030.

Key elements in the strategy include educating customers on What’s next in low-emission vehicles; facilitating the uptake of low-emission vehicles with attractive customer propositions developed by the LeasePlan Electric Vehicle Experience Centre; leading the development of a sophisticated second-hand car market of well-maintained, high-quality lease vehicles; and transitioning LeasePlan’s own employee fleet to an electric vehicle fleet by 2021.