Arval aims for leadership in sustainable mobility, announces evolution of its business model

Arval announces an evolution of its business model, taking it from a full-service leasing company to a leader in all sustainable mobility solutions including the car.

For 30 years, and thanks to the support of BNP Paribas Group, Arval has successfully focused its expertise on full-service leasing. It is now firmly positioned as a market leader, with an average leased fleet growth of 7.4% over the last 5 years and an impressive 6.6% growth in September 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Building on the success of its previous five-year plan, Arval conducted a thorough strategic review in 2019. The results confirmed that customer expectations had profoundly changed in terms of mobility and environmental impact, and that Arval was ready to unlock its full potential and seize those many opportunities. Over the last few months, the impact of the sanitary crisis has only reinforced Arval’s commitment to this change of business model. With its ambitious new strategic plan, built through a successful test & learn approach with offers and partnerships developed in its local entities and with its clients, Arval remains one-step ahead of the game. 

“Arval Beyond strategy is a five-year plan that encompasses this new mindset, with a strong ambition: not only strengthening our historical business model, but going beyond it to become the industry benchmark in terms of sustainable mobility solutions” says Alain Van Groenendael, Arval Chairman and CEO. “With this new plan, we are committed to delivering an integrated mobility experience for our customers, to providing them support during the energy transition, simplicity through connected and flexible products and services, and to co-building added value and innovative offers with new partners”, he adds.

The Arval Beyond strategic plan

Arval Beyond is a roadmap for the company between now and 2025 with ambitious targets. They are:

Arval’s growth and financial performance: 2 million leased cars;

Arval’s ambitions in CSR & Energy Transition: 500,000 electrified vehicles in its fleet, 30% reduction in CO₂ emissions vs. 2020, and Arval remaining a carbon neutral company;
 

A change in Arval’s business model, from car leasing to a wider mobility concept including the car: 100% of Arval countries will propose sustainable mobility solutions to their clients.

Among the initiatives developed to achieve these objectives, four new offers have been created to address the demand for new sustainable mobility solutions, including the car:

360° Mobility: 360° Mobility transforms Arval from a car-centric company into a mobility company. It ensures Arval provides all its corporate clients and their employees, in all its geographies, with the sustainable and state-of-the-art mobility options they need, such as e-bike leasing, Car sharing & Micro-Mobility Solutions, MaaS applications, etc. In 2025, 100% of Arval countries will propose alternative and sustainable mobility products or services.

Good for you, Good for all: Arval aims to become a key leader in the energy transition and sustainability by helping customers to protect the environment and create safer roads. With its integrated EV offers, Arval lifts the constraints usually associated with EVs and facilitates their adoption (leasing of an EV combined with an e-bike, possibility to switch to a combustion engine for several weeks per year, vehicle to grid option, etc.). In addition to its road safety programmes, Arval offers a reduction in insurance premium for vehicles equipped with Advanced Driver Assistance System, encouraging its clients to choose this kind of vehicle. With Good for you, Good for all, Arval will have 500,000 electrified vehicles on the road in 2025, as well as registering a 30% reduction in its fleet’s average CO₂ emissions, and a 10% decrease in its overall accident rate.

Connected & Flexible: Arval is building a simpler and highly connected leasing offer. Based on a combination of new technologies and services, it will enable drivers to enter a new era of mobility with a much simpler driving experience. With Connected & Flexible, Arval offers new services such as automatic payment of street parking, remote booking of car washes, in-car delivery of packages that do not require the driver’s presence, voice assistant services (to find a garage or gas station, request assistance), etc. By 2025, more than 80% of Arval’s fleet will be connected and will offer a wider set of services to make the driver‘s life easier.

Arval Inside: Since the creation of Arval in 1989, partnerships have been part of its DNA, starting with banks and car manufacturers, and now extending to other stakeholders. Arval Inside is a mindset: it’s about sharing Arval’s strongest areas of expertise with selected partners, to jointly build enriched and innovative mobility offers that perfectly fit the needs of clients in a win-win-win collaboration. In 2025, 100% of Arval countries will have signed successful partnerships with international or strong local players.

Arval Beyond is the textbook definition of the “think globally, act locally” syntagma. The global strategy will have its local expression in Arval Romania, who will maintain its alignment with the 4 new offers.  Dedicated local products or services will be launched, fully in line with stakeholders’ expectations and local market maturity of each pillar. The first projects were already started in Romania with the development of Mid Term Rental offer as a more flexible mobility solution (360° Mobility), the SMaRT approach to advise customers in the energy transition (Good for you, Good for all) or Arval Active Link solution for telematics services (Connected & Flexible). Other local projects related to Arval Beyond are in the development phase locally, preparing Arval for the leadership in the sustainable mobility also on the Romanian market.

(P)