International Change Country Search Menu Home Articles Athlon Expert Session: EV Expert Session: EV's Today’s mobility is complex. But don’t worry, we’ll drive you through it. One Athlon Expert. One topic. Five answers. Quick and easy. Here are the basics of leasing an EV with our colleague Pieter Goossens. Aren’t EV’s (electric vehicles) still way too expensive in business mobility? It is true that EV’s are generally more expensive than ICE’s (internal combustion engines). This is understandable. It is a new technology. However, as most company fleet managers know, the investment cost is not the only thing driving the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or Total Cost of Use (TCU) of a vehicle. Given the savings potential from beneficial taxation regimes and cheaper “refueling”, EV’s are often competitive and in some cases even the most economic option. Especially in countries with specific benefit-in-kind regulations, this is doubly true for drivers. What’s more, given the increasing volumes of EV’s I expect EV’s to become competitive with ICE’s within 5 years, even without tax benefits and other incentives. And with the increasing range and charging speeds, barriers are disappearing fast in European markets. What is your advice to customers who are thinking about introducing EV’s into their fleets? First: gather data and know your company. It is really that simple: know your driver profiles and your facilities situation. Without that knowledge you will fly blind. For instance: how do your employees use their vehicles? Do they have private parking opportunities at home? Is there grid capacity left over at your office? It’s a different way of thinking, because these things don’t really matter when you lease an ICE. Second: communicate and create buy-in from all stakeholders. If you want to steer your fleet drivers towards choosing an EV, but the CEO can continue to drive a huge fuel-burning SUV you are implicitly communicating that top management doesn’t support the change. Or if you want to introduce EV’s in your fleet & mobility policy but you forbid fast-charging for cost reasons. It really has to be a joint effort from all stakeholders. But know that even if you do everything right and everyone pulls in the right direction you will still experience resistance. Within Athlon, our experience shows that 20% of employees are early adopters, 60% of them are ‘the wait and see’-crowd sitting on the fence to see which way it will go and 20% will never buy into anything. My advice is to put your energy in the first two groups and not focus on the last one. You will never convince them. Which type of employee/driver has the perfect profile to choose an EV? It’s rather difficult to answer this question in an international context. A big country like Germany is not the same as Belgium or Spain. Overall, 80% of drivers with a private parking spot at home can easily switch to a full EV. Bottom line: know your employees. Who is your internal customer and what is the reality on the ground? All I can say is that when customers start creating mobility profiles they find that there are really only 2 or 3 that cover 80% of their fleet. If those dominant groups are EV-ready, the introduction will be quite simple and you can focus on the rest. How will Covid-19 impact the EV market? We are already seeing that right now. The only segment of the market that is showing any growth in real numbers are the (PH)EV segments. Manufacturers are all keeping an extremely careful eye on their investments but there is not one that has announced scaling back the push on e-mobility. It is actually that part of the supply chain that was either never shut down completely or started back up first. Given the general decline in car registrations, I expect to see these technologies gain market share very quickly. You will be surprised by the numbers hitting our roads the next 24 months. "The only segment of the market that is showing any growth in real numbers are the (PH)EV segments." Why choose Athlon as partner for introducing EV’s in a fleet & mobility policy? Athlon is a true fore-runner when it comes to EV’s. We have been gaining experience with electric vehicles for over 10 years. We are the proud original owner of a Tesla Roadster with vin n° 111. One of the first ever made. We don’t pretend to have all the answers, even experts can’t stop gaining expertise. We learn new things every day. But if you are looking for an experienced partner to guide and help you through the process with real experience and hands on support you have to look no further. Athlon will get you there. Stay on track Dive deep into these articles. You’ll be inspired by new approaches and solutions for your mobility challenges. The cost of charging an EV Establishing the TCO means working out the costs of charging a PHEV or a BEV. And these costs will depend on where the vehicle is charged. Typically, there are three different places that they are likely to be charged. These all have a different impact on the TCO. Read more Athlon’s ambitions to accelerate the transition to a flexible, electric and safe fleet. How can a mobility partner like Athlon inspire businesses to co-create more sustainable mobility? And how will its sustainability and CSR strategy have a positive impact on customers? We talked to Alexander Heijkamp, Sustainability and CSR Director at Athlon International, about his vision for the future of mobility and the role that Athlon intends to play. He also reveals his exciting plans to bring his message to colleagues and customers around Europe on a 12,000 km zero-emission road trip. Read more Athlon Charge takes the hassle out of the transition to electric driving Electric cars are here to stay, and at Athlon we want to ensure that our customers can make the transition from ICEs (internal combustion engine) to EV (electric vehicles) without the slightest hitch. However, customers often have a lot of practical questions. Ronald Van Slooten, Athlon International’s e-mobility specialist, tells us more. 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