OpenLobby.EU
Explore

Europcar Mobility Group

Europcar

Europcar Mobility Group has been Europe’s leading car rental provider for almost 70 years and one of the major players in the mobility sector.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Clean corporate vehicles

8 Sept 2025

At present, corporate vehicle registrations are responsible for up to 60% of new vehicle purchases and mobility service providers recognise their responsibility in helping to reduce overall fleet emissions. The further uptake of BEVs is constrained by a lack of existing enabling conditions linked to customer demand, vehicle utility and pricing, supply and infrastructure challenges paired with regulatory instability and geopolitical fluctuations. Lack of customer demand is equally relevant when it comes to the second-hand market where there is currently an oversupply of BEVs. Despite the fact that BEVs have a significantly higher depreciation compared to hybrid and ICE vehicles, due to their higher purchase prices there is still a considerable discrepancy between what the average consumer is able to spend on a second-hand vehicle and what is on offer. Other issues such as battery state of health and range only exacerbate this. Moreover, to grow both customer confidence and demand, the recharging experience needs to be as seamless as refuelling an ICE vehicle today by ensuring ease of finding public recharging points, reliable service provision at charge-points, more user-friendly payment options and price transparency, all supported by adequate grid capacity. A long-term strategy needs to go well beyond AFIR and address deployment in both urban centres as well as rural areas, at airports and train stations. Both for new and used vehicles it is ultimately the customer that decides on the choice of vehicle, not rental companies. The EU is currently assessing three policy options: Policy Option 1 Setting of national targets Europcar opposes setting of national targets which, in turn, would inevitably be paired with targets imposed by Member States for companies, as in practice this would differ little from policy option 3. Instead of mandating such targets, Europcar supports well-designed incentive systems paired with heavy investments in enabling conditions to naturally foster demand for BEVs in primary and secondary markets. Policy Option 2 Rules on financial incentives for corporate vehicles these would be designed to reproduce the incentives systems that have been adopted across the fastest BEV uptake markets in Europe. Even in these markets, consumer demand in the second-hand market is low. As such, incentives should support demand for the primary as well as secondary vehicle markets. Policy Option 3 Targets for companies would not address the existing concerns outlined above. Resulting from a lack of enabling conditions, the introduction of company targets could lead to scale-down of rental offerings and/or increased pricing, which will have a major impact on the competitiveness of SMEs which depend on our services as well as the wider automotive ecosystem. This would not only reduce the competitiveness of European industry, it would also fail to meet the stated environmental objective as business and consumers are likely to turn to outright financing of older more polluting vehicles and continue to drive them longer. From a legal perspective, we consider the Proposal, notably policy options 1 and 3, not to be compliant with EU law as it is likely to violate the Principles of Proportionality and Consistency of legislation, the Principle of Subsidiarity and to directly infringe Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, including the Freedom to Conduct a Business. Rather than arbitrarily setting targets for corporate fleets that fail to take into account real world limitations, Europcar Mobility Group believes the Commission should focus on investing on charging infrastructure, adequate grid capacity, subsidies as well as fiscal incentives designed to help consumers and businesses bridge the financing gap, for both new as well as used BEV markets.
Read full response

Meeting with Apostolos Tzitzikostas (Commissioner) and

17 Jul 2025 · Corporate Fleets strategic dialogue

Meeting with Jan-Christoph Oetjen (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Feb 2025 · Exchange on current challenges in the car rental sector

Meeting with François Kalfon (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Feb 2025 · Priorités TRAN 2024-2029

Meeting with Jean-Louis Colson (Head of Unit Mobility and Transport) and Car Rental Coalition and Hertz Europe Limited

4 Feb 2025 · Discussion on a possible initiative of the Commission on cross-border car rentals.

Meeting with Rosa Serrano Sierra (Member of the European Parliament) and European Boating Industry and

11 Dec 2024 · Priorities for European Commission 2024-2029

Meeting with Kosma Złotowski (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Dec 2024 · Car rental and the future of shared mobility in the EU

Meeting with Sophia Kircher (Member of the European Parliament) and Portland PR Europe Limited and Hertz Europe Limited

24 Sept 2024 · Greening corporate fleets

Meeting with Pablo Fabregas Martinez (Cabinet of Commissioner Adina Vălean)

4 Jan 2024 · European transport policies

Meeting with Daniel Mes (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans) and Portland PR Europe Limited and Avis Budget Group

22 Oct 2020 · Sustainable car rental services