Nearly half of all passenger cars in Belgium’s long-term rental fleet are now fully electric. And the transition is far from finished: more than three-quarters of the vehicles ordered by leasing companies in the first half of 2026 were BEVs.

Belgium’s company-car fleet continues to electrify at a pace that bears little resemblance to the private market. According to new figures from sector federation Renta, battery-electric cars accounted for 46.69% of all passenger cars in long-term rental at the end of June 2026.

A year earlier, that share was just 35.1%. Renta’s members managed 680,708 vehicles at the end of June, up 3.1% year-on-year, of which 647,868 were in long-term rental.

The passenger-car fleet itself grew only 1.9% to 576,825 cars, but its composition is changing rapidly. Diesel now represents just 8.33% of long-term leased passenger cars, while plug-in hybrids account for 21.04%.

Around 59,000 EVs ordered in six months

The order book suggests the transformation is far from over. During the first six months of 2026, Renta’s long-term rental companies ordered 76,594 new vehicles.

Most strikingly, 77.04% were fully electric, 8.54 percentage points more than in the same period last year. Applied to the total volume, that amounts to roughly 59,000 BEVs ordered in only six months. Renta therefore expects electric cars to represent around 63% of its long-term passenger-car fleet by June 2027.

The average investment per ordered vehicle has meanwhile risen to €38,238 excluding VAT, compared with €35,329 at the end of 2025.

Pushed by tax, but apparently not regretted

That 77% figure should not, however, be interpreted as evidence that Belgian motorists spontaneously prefer electric cars. Belgium’s company-car transition is heavily policy-driven.

PwC’s 2026 Mobility Report found that 74% of the large Belgian employers surveyed now impose a fully electric policy on new fleet orders.

Belgium’s tax system has progressively made combustion-engine company cars financially less attractive, while zero-emission cars retain much greater deductibility.

The contrast with private buyers is telling. Deloitte’s latest consumer survey found that only 12% of Belgians would choose a BEV as their next privately purchased car, barely changed from 11% in 2025.

Yet being pushed toward an EV does not necessarily mean drivers dislike one once they have it. A KBC Autolease survey of 1,728 Belgian electric company-car drivers found that 44% were no longer allowed to choose a petrol or diesel car when selecting their current vehicle.

93% positive about their EV

Nevertheless, 93% described their experience with an EV as positive, and 85% said they would choose an electric vehicle again.

Even among drivers who originally had no choice of powertrain, around 77% would voluntarily pick an EV again for their next company car.

Among those who had been free to choose initially, that rises to about 91%. Driving comfort was cited as an advantage by 94%, although range remains a drawback for 68% and charging time for 44%.

So Belgium’s electric company-car boom appears to have started mainly through fiscal pressure, but experience may be turning compulsory adopters into willing ones.

Belgium among Europe’s company-car EV frontrunners

Belgium also stands out compared with its neighbors, although national statistics are not perfectly comparable because definitions of company and lease fleets differ.

In the Netherlands, another highly developed leasing market, BEVs accounted for almost 43% of the business lease passenger-car fleet at the end of 2025, compared with Belgium’s 46.69% by June 2026.

Moreover, fully electric cars represented 53% of new Dutch lease-car registrations in July 2026, still well below the 77% share in new Renta orders in Belgium.

The gap with France and Germany appears larger. In France, fully electric models accounted for almost 30% of the corporate-car market in the first half of 2026, according to Arval Mobility Observatory.

In Germany, a DAT survey of fleet managers put the BEV share of company fleets at about 23%, although two-thirds of German BEV registrations are now made by commercial rather than private customers.

Belgium’s unusually favorable tax treatment of zero-emission company cars therefore seems to have pushed corporate electrification further and faster than in most surrounding markets.

Older cars stay in the fleet longer

The growth of the overall Renta fleet also needs some context. A major ordering wave occurred in early 2023, before less favorable taxation on company cars powered by combustion engines took effect. Those vehicles were delivered later and remain in circulation today.

Lease contracts are also getting longer. Renta says the average duration has increased to 51 months, helping explain why its long-term fleet still expanded by 3.6% despite a weaker professional new-car market.

Vans remain the laggard

Commercial vehicles paint a very different picture. Renta’s long-term light-commercial fleet jumped by more than 20% to 70,161 vehicles, but only 11.37% are fully electric.

Diesel still accounts for an overwhelming 80.01% of leased vans. Electrification is therefore progressing much more slowly than among passenger company cars.

Short-term rental also remains largely combustion-powered. Its total fleet shrank from 34,756 to 32,840 vehicles, while only 8.68% of its passenger cars are electric.

The figures reveal two increasingly different Belgian car markets. Fiscal policy has turned corporate leasing into an exceptionally powerful engine for electrification, with nearly 59,000 more BEVs ordered in six months alone. Private motorists and commercial-vehicle users remain far less convinced.

But among company-car drivers who have already made the switch — willingly or otherwise — going back to petrol or diesel appears to have surprisingly little appeal.