The car fleet management market - France (2025)

1.2 A booming global market

The fleet management market will reach $**.* billion in ****. The market is expected to grow between now and ****, before reaching a size of $**.* billion, equivalent to a CAGR (***) of **.*% between **** and ****. [***]

Growth in fleet management sales France, ****-****, in billions of US dollars Source: ****

As a result, the market's main players are predominantly American. According to the same source, they include Verizon Connect, Trimble and Wheels.

The study also highlights the fact that the sector will grow, notably under the influence of :

Environmental regulations, which are becoming stricter and more complex, encouraging companies to outsource management functions in order to comply with them. The development of mobility alternatives to the car (***), which could represent a new growth segment for fleet managers. The Cloud, which makes management simpler and less costly, while improving performance and hence the attractiveness of fleet managers.

1.3 A growing French market

The French market is relatively important for fleet management players: the sustained growth of long-term leasing (***) has also accelerated demand for fleet management over the last few decades. Sesame LLD, the French association of long-term leasing companies, has noted, for example, that the number of vehicles leased under long-term leasing increased by a factor of ** between **** and ****, and that the total fleet under management represented around *.** million vehicles at December **, ****, including ***,*** in Fleet Management.

The graph above shows that the number of vehicles managed by fleet managers has been rising steadily since the fall in ****. In fact, the number of vehicles fell by **.*% between **** and ****, then rose by *.*% between **** and ****. Growth rates were much higher in the pre-Covid period. We will develop the impact of the health crisis later in this study.

Vehicle fleet in fleet management France, June **** - June ****, in thousands of vehicles Source: ****

Fleet management is a business that is highly concentrated among a few players, notably ALD and Diac, who share the lion's share of the market. Still using Sesame LLD data, we can represent the fleets administered by the union's member companies on the following graph. The data date from ****, but the concentration of activity has ...

2.1 Companies and fleet management: key factors

Profile of companies with a fleet

Not all companies are of the same size, a variable which has an influence on fleet ownership and management. We can use Arval's **** Fleet and Mobility Barometer to provide a profile of fleet-owning companies and the implications of this. The disadvantage of this study is that it does not provide a general overview of demand and the factors influencing fleet ownership.

As we can see from the graph below, the number of vehicles in a company's fleet really starts to rise above *** employees. Between *** and *** employees, companies own a fleet of over *** vehicles in **% of cases; and from **** employees upwards, companies own a fleet of over *** vehicles in **% of cases.

Distribution of vehicle fleets by company size France, ****, in Source: ****

The graph below shows that small companies (***) concentrate their fleets in high volumes, with the vast majority having more than *,*** passenger cars in their fleets.

Number of passenger cars in the fleet France, ****, in Source: ****

For commercial vehicles, companies with fewer than ** employees also dominate the category of fleets made up of fewer than ** vehicles (***).

Number of light commercial vehicles or vans in the fleet France, ****, in Source: ****

The two graphs above underline the correlation ...

2.2 Connected vehicles

The two graphs below show the proportion of French companies using connected vehicles, including passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (***). In fact, **% of companies use connected vehicles for all or part of their fleet, with **% using connected passenger cars and **% connected LCVs

Proportion of companies using connected vehicles France, ****, in Source: ****

Proportion of companies using connected vehicles, by company size France, ****, in Source: ****

2.3 Demand for alternative mobility

A study by Arval shows that employees' commuting habits are changing. While the private car is still the dominant means of transport, its role is somewhat threatened by other, cleaner modes of transport. The same study lists alternative mobility solutions:

company car-sharing employee car-sharing bicycle sharing / leasing public transport mobility budget an application for reserving company-provided mobility solutions private hire or exchange of part of remuneration for a vehicle short or medium-term vehicle rental car or cash allowance

In its study, Arval notes two major changes:

the diversification of mobility ; the involvement that employees expect from their company.

by way of example, the data collected by Arval for its **** barometer show that these alternative mobility solutions will tend to be used more and more. Indeed, expectations over the next * years point to spectacular growth prospects in terms of alternative mobility.

Implementation of at least one alternative mobility solution by companies France, ****, in % Source: ****

Overview of the implementation of mobility solutions France, ****, in Source: ****

Howevertelecommutingcould threaten the fleet management sector in the long term, especially as a study by HR consultancy Kronos shows that **% of respondents consider telecommuting to be a "real revolution".

While most of these solutions (***).

Reasons for implementing or ...

2.4 Long-term leasing: a growing trend

The chart below shows that leasing predominates, accounting for **% of financing, followed by cash purchase (***). A similar breakdown can be observed in the different company categories, although there are slight variations.

Main fleet financing method France, ****, in Source: ****

The development potential of long-term leasing over the next three years remains high (***). This potential is most pronounced among the largest companies, whereas the smallest companies seem to be in slight decline.

Proportion of companies intending to develop or increase the use of full service leasing for their vehicle fleet France, ****-****, in Source : ARVAL ****, ARVAL **** cumulative responses: "yes, certainly" and "yes, probably"

The sales of the main leasing companies are made up of the sum of rents invoiced to customers. These rentals are an aggregation of very different types of income[***]:

(***) Financing , which accounts for a large proportion of the rental income, with a very low financial margin. The amount to be financed covers the purchase of the vehicle minus the resale value at the end of the contract.

(***). This service is generally subcontracted by fleet managers to brand dealers or specialized maintenance companies.

(***) Sales also include the sale of used vehicles at the end of the contract.

3.1 Market organization

An article in Les Echos makes an initial distinction within the fleet management sector. On the one hand, some companies offer long-term leases to others, accompanied by management services ranging from maintenance to fuel.

On the other hand, there are fleet management services, which provide these services to companies that have already purchased the vehicles. There's a fine line between these two categories, since France's biggest fleet managers, notably Ayvens (***) and Arval, both offer fleet management and LLD services. According to the same source, among fleet managers, it is once again possible to distinguish two other categories:

Technical fleet management, which takes care of all technical aspects of the vehicle (***) through a network of garages with which it has previously negotiated prices. These services are generally offered by companies that also offer leasing services. Administrative fleet management, which takes charge of and directs the management of technical fleet managers within a company. Companies such as FleetLogistics and Aon are active in this niche.

Fleet management value chain

Source: ****

3.2 Market dynamics

New players

To understand current market dynamics, we can draw on Deloitte 's study of fleet management.

The market has traditionally been controlled by banking subsidiaries, which finance long-term leases. Even today, ALD Automotive, owned by Société Générale, and Arval, owned by BNP Paribas, manage many more vehicles than their competitors. In fact, in ****, the ranking of the vehicle fleet under full service leasing and managed fleet management already gave ALD and Arval the *st and *rd positions[***]

Banks have gradually been attacked in this market by carmakers, who have begun to take on the management of vehicles sold, in addition to long-term fleet financing. In France, examples include Diac, Free*Move and Athlon.

Market concentration

On the European market, over **% of market share already belonged to the * players in the table below[***], including three companies set up by banks, and two (***) belonging to automakers. The table below ranks these companies according to the number of vehicles they currently manage:

This trend towards concentration has been further accentuated by ALD Automotive's acquisition of Lease Plan, announced for January ****. the creation of a leader with more than *.* million vehicles under contract and even greater geographical coverage. [***]

However, we can ...

3.3 Geographical breakdown of companies

The map below shows the geographical distribution of establishments with NAF code ****A: "Short-term rental of cars and light motor vehicles". It is assumed that car rental companies offer both types of service (***) to meet the varied needs of customers, and that this NAF code gives an idea of the geographical distribution of establishments in the car fleet sector.

TheIle-de-France regionaccounts for **.**% of short-term car rentalcompanies, followed by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (***) regions.

4.1 Services offered by fleet managers

The combination of the Deloitte study on fleet management and an analysis of the services offered byArval provides an overview of the services offered by fleet managers, and the share of profit they represent.

Source: ****

Here are the most common services provided by fleet managers[***]:

Vehicle registration, a process that can be long and complex. Toll badges, which allow drivers to save time while controlling their activity. Risk management and safety, which involves training drivers and recording driving data. Fuel, via the granting of fuel cards that enable discounts to be obtained at service stations, while monitoring employee spending, which was *** million liters of fuel purchased by managers in **** compared with *** million liters in ****. [***] Tires, a service that enables tires to be changed in winter and when wear becomes too severe. On-board telematics solutions, which analyze data collected on the vehicle to improve its use over time (***). Fines management, which involves paying fines and handling the related administrative files: ***,*** fines managed in ****, compared with ***,*** in ****. [***] Maintenance, enabling vehicles to be repaired in the event of accidents or excessive wear: * million maintenance operations in ****. Accident management, via direct contact with garages: ***,*** partial claims managed in ****, compared with ***,*** in ****. [***] Relay vehicle, enabling company ...

4.2 The most common fleet management models

According to SesamLLD's report on the *ᵉ quarter **** period, we can distinguish the models that are most popular in terms of passenger vehicles, but also light commercial vehicles and company vehicles. The most popular models are listed in the table below. Through theARVAL website, an indication of the unit prices of leased vehicles is available in the same table. It should be remembered that these prices are indicative only. Here, we've chosen the most leased model each time. It should be added that these prices can be revised downwards when companies call on fleet managers for larger orders.

Top ** leased vehiclesFrance, *ᵉ quarter ****

* : Prices prior to **** (***)

4.3 Payment methods and average fleet management costs

Payment methods

Using an article from the Journal du Net, we can establish that fleet managers are paid in three different ways.

Accounting: with this method of payment, all expenses incurred by the fleet manager (***) are billed to the customer, in addition to the management fee, which is calculated according to the service provider's ability to reduce vehicle TCO. Open-book : when the contract is signed, the customer pays a provision to the fleet manager, which is deemed to be sufficient to fulfill his mission. Fixed price : the client pays a predetermined fixed price, calculated on the basis of mileage and the duration of the contract. In this case, the fleet manager bears all the financial costs associated with the vehicle.

Average cost of fleet management

Since it is not possible to find public information on vehicle costs, we can estimate the average cost of a fleet management solution.

Companies generally spend * to *% of the TCO of a vehicle on a fleet manager. [***]

The average monthly TCO of a vehicle, which varies greatly according to make, model and age[***], was around *** euros in **** according to Flottes Automobiles. Annual vehicle management costs then average between *** and *** euros.

4.4 A digitalizing and diversifying offering

Cloud Computing

We are currently witnessing the development ofCloud Computingin the field of fleet management. This makes it easier to link up data from several vehicles. These solutions can, for example, be used for vehicle tracking, integrated with the fleet control system, to collect data and then transmit it to the central server to avoid data loss in the event of a poor connection.

This also enables fleet managers to reduce expenditure on maintaining physical infrastructures (***), and to expand or reduce the amount of storage space used according to need.

The use of Cloud Computing also enables collected data to be analyzed more efficiently, using tools integrated with the Cloud service - like AWS IoT Greengrass with AWS (***). [***]

New expectations from fleet managers

An article by Flottes Automobiles, taking stock of **** in the sector, also gave some indication of managers' new expectations, and **% of them were already aiming to offer mixed mobility solutions. As we saw in section *.*, by ****, an average of **% of companies had implemented at least one alternative mobility solution.

5.1 The importance of mobility plans and taxation

mobility plan

First of all, we can look at the entry into force of the new mobility plan, included in the energy transition law for green growth votede in ****, which requires the implementation of a mobility plan (***) for employees of companies with more than *** employees since ****, making their daily commutes more efficient and less polluting. The measures are designed to encourage a reduction in the use of private cars as the main means of transport.

The MDP forces companies to rethink the use of their vehicle fleets and their impact on the environment. TheADEME (***) website gives some examples of measures that can be taken by companies:

Promote the use of bicycles by setting up a bicycle room, showers for cyclists, etc. Encourage employees to take public transport. Adapt work schedules and facilitate telecommuting. Encourage employees to carpool.

These new measures should result in a rethinking of mobility within large companies, with greater emphasis on car-sharing and cleaner mobility overall (***).

Taxation

It may be interesting to take a look at the tax implications of purchasing or leasing vehicles for companies, using the information provided by Sesame LLD.

VAT

vAT on the purchase of private vehicles is not recoverable, except in the case ...

5.2 Importance of the Mobility Orientation Act

On June **, ****, the French National Assembly passed the Mobility Orientation Law (***). This has had a direct impact on fleet managers.

Fleet renewal

Companies managing fleets of over *** vehicles have had to take environmental imperatives into account when renewing their fleets. In ****, **% of vehicles renewed had to be "low-emission" vehicles. This rate will rise to **% in ****, **% in **** and **% from ****. Local authorities managing more than ** light vehicles also had their part to play, as the rate for them was **% from ****, and will be **.*% from ****.

Low-emission zones

From **** onwards, it will be compulsory for municipalities with high levels of pollution to set up Low Emission Zones (***): these are zones where traffic is banned for vehicles that are too polluting.

Sustainable mobility package

Since this law, employers can pay for their employees' journeys if they use a bicycle or travel by car-sharing, and this "up to an overall limit of *** euros per year, including a maximum of *** euros for fuel or electricity costs". [***]

6.1 Segmentation

• Orange Business Service- OCEAN
• LeasePlan
• Arval
• ALD Automotive - Ayvens
• Free2Move Lease
• Alphabet France Fleet Management
• Esalys
• Traxall
• Overlease
• Informakit
• Chevin
• Masternaut
• Karos
• Openfleet
• Fatec
• Solucar
• Phoenix Developement
• Holson
• Aficar Mobility
• Direct Fleet
• Mobility Total Energy (Waykonect)
• Leasys S.p.A.
• Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance
• BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions
• Fraikin
• Petit Forestier
• One lease
• Optimum Automotive (Shiftmove Group)
• Athlon Car Lease
• Movivolt