Company: BCDRF
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000891478-25-000054
Chunk: 43

Company: Banco Santander, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 20-F
Chunk 43
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 of new sustainable mobility ideas such as battery swapping.

Nonetheless, the effectiveness of all these measures in the medium and long term and SCF’s growth in electric vehicle lending will depend on external factors that include regulation; the technological developments needed to reduce production costs and ensure access to key materials to manufacture green vehicles; the infrastructure to expand capacity and boost efficiency; and customer demand and market trends.

Non-auto

On top of Santander Consumer Finance’s leadership in auto lending, it is also a reference in Europe in other consumer finance sectors, with prominent partnerships and a presence at over 75,000 points of sale throughout the continent.

This vast footprint requires a strong social and environmental objective to drive a more sustainable economy. With specific, measurable actions, SCF is working on a green finance model that promotes environmentally-friendly projects and products for responsible consumption.

Our sustainable finance value proposition for the Consumer business covers these sectors:

• Real estate: Solar panel installation, upgrade to sustainable home heating and cooling systems, and energy efficient devices.

• Sustainable mobility: Electric vehicle charging points, emission-free vehicles such as bicycles and scooters, and conversions of combustion engines to less polluting alternatives such as liquid natural gas and hydrogen.

• Other activities: Sustainable fashion, second-hand clothes, used mobile phone buybacks and the issue of cards made of sustainable materials (recycled PVC/PLA) as part of the circular economy.

Our value proposition is also complemented with financing programmes for education so that students can access the tools they need to achieve greater inclusion.

We run other initiatives such as “Hazte ECO” (SCF España) where we invite customers to join projects to protect the environment when they use their cards. SCF contributes 1% of purchases to these projects and makes twice-yearly donations to Fundación Global Nature to help restore Spain’s wetlands.

The EUR 155 million in green finance disbursed by the Consumer units in 2024 is a key sign of our objective through this value proposition.

However, consumers continue to face several obstacles such as:

• Solar panels: A product with a specific shelf life (10-15 years) requires significant investment and a lengthy repayment plan, which coupled with more stable electricity prices has caused customers’ appetite to wane.

• Electric bicycles: Electric bicycles are growing in popularity in Europe, especially in crowded cities, where they are a practical alternative to passenger cars. Despite being cheaper than electric vehicles, these bicycles are expensive and require significant investment (depending on the model).

The high level of investment that most sustainable initiatives