Vehicle leasing company ALD LeasePlan has allocated €600 million (£515m) to increase the availability of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).   

Following on from the major financial partnership signed in 2019 between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and ALD LeasePlan, the pair have agreed a new deal.

The EIB has granted a credit envelope worth €300m, with the sum matched by ALD LeasePlan.

Covering a period of three years, the cash will finance an equal number of BEVs and PHEVs (15,000 vehicles in total over the three years).

PHEV vehicles are capped at a maximum level of emissions of 50g/km (reduced by one third compared to 2019).

“Through our financing to support European companies in their energy transition, the EIB is fully playing its role as a gas pedal of the low-carbon transformation of the entire automotive sector," said Ambroise Fayolle, EIB vice president.

“I am delighted that the EU Climate Bank is able to provide this loan to support the greening of ALD LeasePlan 's fleet of hybrid and electric vehicles.

“ALD LeasePlan is a European leader in sustainable mobility, and plays an essential role in disseminating these best practices among SMEs, which count among its most important customers.”

ALD’s £4.1 billion (€4.8bn) acquisition of LeasePlan was completed by a consortium led by TDR Capital in May. 

With a combined worldwide managed fleet of 3.3 million vehicles, the merger also brought together two of the UK’s biggest leasing companies.

ALD LeasePlan’s chief financial officer, Gilles Momper, said: “The recent acquisition of LeasePlan by ALD positioned our company as the leading global sustainable mobility player with a total fleet of 3.3 million vehicles managed worldwide.

“We intend to keep leveraging our unique position on the European market to lead the energy transition and provide our customers with the mobility solutions they need to succeed.”

“This co-financing operation will contribute to further reduce carbon emissions in transport by accelerating the adoption and penetration of green vehicles in the European countries we are covering”.

The EIB is the long-term lending institution of the European Union and is owned by the 27 EU Member States.

Since 2019, The EIB Group has adopted a Climate Bank Roadmap to deliver on its ambitious agenda to support €1 trillion of climate action and environmental sustainability investments in the decade to 2030 and to devote more than half of EIB finance to climate action and environmental sustainability by 2025. 

It has already largely achieved this objective in France, where it invested €8.4 billion in 2022, two-thirds of which went to renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings and sustainable mobility.