MACCLESFIELD, England -- Large corporations are jumping on the green bandwagon, which in turn is pushing firms that lease and manage car fleets to convert to electric vehicles faster than they had ever thought possible.
In late 2020, fleet management company ALD set a to have 30 percent of its new cars electrified by 2025 -- a goal that seemed like a stretch because as recently as 2019 only one in 200 of ALD's new vehicles was an EV or a hybrid.
But corporate clients chasing environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals pushed the leasing giant, a unit of Societe Generale, past that target in 2021.
ALD has set a new goal that around 50 percent of its new vehicles will be either EVs or hybrid models by 2025 as corporations' hunger for zero-emission options to meet ESG targets keeps growing, Deputy CEO John Saffrett said.
Corporate clients are "all sitting there trying to figure out how they are going to meet their sustainability objectives," Saffrett said. "An obvious part of their footprint today that they're trying to address is their vehicle fleet."
Firms like ALD, which replaces its entire fleet every 42 months, play an important role in the auto industry, buying millions of vehicles globally that also help shape the future of the used car market when they come off lease.
ALD also leases cars to both firms and consumers on behalf of some major carmakers including Tesla and Ford Motor.