Second-hand cars will be leased more often by private individuals. That is the expectation of Tim Albertsen, the new CEO of the combination of the Dutch Leaseplan and the French ALD, the largest car leasing company in Europe. “People love their cars.”
Although his name sounds Dutch, the new CEO is Danish. He has been working in the car rental industry since the 1990s. Through various acquisitions, he ended up at the French ALD, where he rose to CEO over the years. Last week he was appointed CEO of the combination of the number one and two of the European lease market, which manages three million cars worldwide.
“I’ve been a used car salesman all my career,” he jokes, to elaborate on the synergy benefits of the merger. “Together we can make a better stand against the car manufacturers, because we buy 800,000 cars every year. A reorganization is not necessary, we have resolved duplications in the organization. The current Dutch location remains important to us. There are no plans to move it to Paris,” he says.
The owners of Leaseplan, the British investment company TDR and pension fund PGGM sold the group from Amsterdam for 4.9 billion euros last year. A new name for the combination will be announced in October.
Number of business kilometers is decreasing
The sale of used lease cars is currently a major source of income, with the number of lease contracts falling slightly, according to last year’s figures. Working from home reduces the number of business kilometers. What does that mean in the long run? “Private leasing is currently booming. We now also offer this for second-hand cars, of which about 70 percent currently go to dealers for the private market. We see that private individuals are opting more often for leasing,” says Albertsen.
But isn’t this enforced, partly by government policy? With a lease there is an interest surcharge, which forms part of the revenue model of the leasing company. “If you calculate everything, especially with our purchasing power, then the consumer will be cheaper with us. An electric car is less easy to finance for private individuals. We see ourselves as a provider of various transport concepts, business and private lease, additional public transport, the shared car and even the lease bicycle,” says the CEO.
Grants
It was previously stated that new diesels are just as polluting or clean as electric cars. Albertsen points out that in this discussion it matters what kind of current the electric car is charged with. “In France, where a lot of nuclear energy is available, that saves 70 percent. Here it is 30 percent. In general, the electric car, including the extraction of the raw materials for the battery, is slightly cleaner than the latest fossil cars. In addition, we have a lot of financing via so-called green bonds, which are linked to our investment in electric cars. Thanks to subsidies, electric leasing is now just as expensive as fossil fuel.”
Governments are trying to curb car ownership, partly to meet UN targets. There are municipalities that in a few years only want to have electric cars inside their gates. In addition, plans for the 900,000 homes that Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing) wants to build in the coming period showed that car ownership or use is not taken into account. To what extent is this a threat to the future of ALD/Leaseplan?
“Governments are trying to intervene. They do this, among other things, by offering shared cars, but people love their cars. Public transport is an alternative in cities, but not elsewhere. You have the political agenda and the reality. I don’t expect it to go that fast.”