According to new T&E research, a new EU law to electrify the vehicle fleets of large companies could deliver 57% of the electric vehicle (EV) sales that carmakers need in 2030.
While carmakers claim there is insufficient EV demand to meet their 2030 EU CO2 targets, T&E’s analysis shows that an ambitious company cars law would deliver 2 million new EV sales.
But that’s only if the proposed fleet electrification targets are increased. If the European Commission’s proposal remains unchanged, EU car manufacturers would secure only 37% of the electric sales needed to meet their EU CO2 targets.
The EU proposal sets only a 45% target, on average, for member states to electrify new cars registered by large companies, which T&E said would fail to realise the demand-driving potential of the law. T&E analysed the impact of increasing this target to 69% and excluding plug-in hybrids, in line with the EU’s medium ambition scenario in its own Impact Assessment.
The European Commission included three scenarios in its Impact Assessment (65%, 70%, 75%). The medium ambition scenario set a 70% EV-only target for large companies. The T&E analysis finds that all EU carmakers would secure a significant share of their EV sales, with BMW (72%), Volkswagen (61%), and Volvo (59%) seeing the biggest gains.
Laggard status
Large companies should clearly lead the EV market, T&E said, but under the Commission’s proposed targets, they would be asked to electrify faster than the overall car market in just six countries (Germany, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands).
In Germany, EV registrations by large companies would be only 5 percentage points above where the EV market is already expected to be. In the remaining 21 member states, companies would lag behind or merely match the overall EV market. Unless amended, the Commission proposal will embed the fleet sector’s laggard status in the fleets law, T&E said.
Sofie Grande y Rodriguez, Clean Fleets Manager at T&E, comments: “Designing a fleet law that doesn’t require large companies to lead is like building a house that no one will ever live in.”
“Lawmakers have two options, she adds. “Either they raise EV targets and drop PHEVs, or they fail to turn this law into the powerful demand-driving instrument it should be. It’s in the European car industry’s interests that they get this done right.”
The Belgian example
EV uptake grows quickly when the car tax is reformed. Belgium changed its fiscal rules for company cars in 2021, gradually phasing out depreciation write-offs for internal combustion cars and PHEVs. This reform led to EV corporate registrations reaching 54% in 2025.
In Germany, where no tax reform penalising combustion cars and PHEVs was enacted, EVs accounted for only 19% of the corporate market (Dataforce data for 2025).
Boost for Europe
Ambitious fleet targets would also bolster local manufacturing and jobs. 74% of all new corporate EVs registered in the EU in 2025 are already made in Europe [final assembly line located in the EU-27], and this share is likely to increase further if, as proposed, only EU-produced EVs are eligible for financial support.
Under Article 4 of the Clean Corporate Vehicles Regulation, the European Commission proposes to end subsidies (financial support) for fossil-fuel corporate cars and to make any national-level financial support for company cars strictly conditional on vehicles that are ‘Made in the European Union’.
European carmakers could sell up to 1.9 million additional EVs in 2030 under a more ambitious 69% EV-only fleet target [T&E’s calculations on the number of made-in-EU EVs the law would deliver assume that all corporate EVs registered by large companies will be made in the EU].
This is almost four times the annual production of the VW Wolfsburg factory for all powertrains. Keeping the current target for EVs at 45% would cool this effect, generating only a maximum of 1.2 million additional made-in-EU EVs. The definition of Made-in-EU will be set down in the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) later this month.
Sofie Grande y Rodriguez concludes: “The EU fleet law is Europe’s secret weapon to turbocharge domestic car production. With made-in-EU EVs already being the favourite choice for corporate buyers when going electric, fleet targets will support European car manufacturers and jobs.”
