How corporate fleets can boost demand for Made-in-EU EVs

With the upcoming Clean Corporate Vehicles proposal, the European Commission can further tap into this potential. Asking the corporate market to accelerate and lead Europe’s shift to electric is legitimate:

• In 23 out of 27 Member States, companies receive more benefits than private buyers for owning an EV. In Germany this goes up to €14.000 per car.

• Despite such benefits, in only 3 Member States companies are really driving the uptake of electric cars.

This means that the corporate market’s potential is far from exhausted: an EU-wide target (on Member States or companies) asking large corporations to electrify 75% of their new cars in 2030, with Made-in-EU requirements, could lead to an additional 1.2 million locally produced EVs by 2030.

The European Commission is preparing a legislative proposal on Clean Corporate Vehicles. This law is expected to set binding electrification targets on corporate cars – either on Member States or on large companies.

1.1. Companies benefit from tax breaks when owning an electric car

There are good reasons for the Commission to ask companies to lead Europe’s switch to electric: when companies buy or lease a car, they benefit from fiscal advantages that are not available to private buyers. Examples are VAT deductions, depreciation write-offs and Benefit-in-Kind.

In 23 out of 27 Member States, companies receive more benefits than private consumers when owning an electric car. T&E analysis shows that the average EU corporate tax relief for an EV buyer is €1,508 yearly. In Germany, where corporate EV tax benefits are among the highest, this goes up to €3,505 per year, or €14,020 over a typical ownership period of four years. Companies benefit from public money when owning an electric vehicle and should therefore drive the EU’s efforts in decarbonising road transport and boost demand for electric vehicles.

1.2. Only in three EU countries the corporate car market is clearly leading on electrification

Despite these fiscal benefits, companies are not clearly outpacing the private market in terms of electrification. This is partly due to the tax benefits that polluting company cars continue to receive. In only three EU countries the corporate market is significantly steering the adoption of BEVs (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands). In large car markets such as Germany, France, Spain or Italy, their performance is underwhelming. Countries that have introduced structural fiscal reforms have a much higher corporate car electrification share. Since 2021, Belgium progressively phased out the fiscal deductibility for fossil fuel vehicles, creating a clear and growing incentive for BEV uptake. This has resulted in corporate BEV registrations of over 54% in the first half of 2025 (compared to 9% in the private market).

2.1. Companies buy more Made-in-EU EVs

Looking at the registration data of the first half year of 2025, companies tend to prefer purchasing more EVs that are made-in-EU than private households (73% against 63% for private buyers). Made-in-EU is defined as vehicles for which the final assembly line is located in the EU-27 (i.e. EVs of European brands that are produced in China and imported into the EU are not counted as Made-in-EU). Due to their high market share – 60% of new cars are corporate – and higher preference, there are 2.2 times more Made-in-EU electric cars registered by companies than private: 403,000 compared to 184,000 in just the first half of 2025.

2.2. What are the most popular EV models in the corporate and private market?

This trend is also reflected when zooming in on the most popular EV models for both the corporate and private segment: Made-in-EU EVs currently dominate the business segment, with 13 out of the 15 most popular models manufactured in the EU. For private buyers, these numbers are telling a different story: only 10 out of 15 top-selling models are EU made (see annex in full briefing attached on the left side of this page).

This gap becomes even more apparent when zooming in on the market share of the top 15 models that are not Made-in-EU (see figure below): for the corporate segment, the non Made-in-EU models (Tesla Model 3 and the Kia EV3), account for only 10% of the best-selling corporate EV sales in the first half of 2025. For the private segment, this is 32%.

As T&E analysis confirms, companies currently have a higher preference for a Made-in-EU vehicle when purchasing an EV. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of untapped potential, as companies are currently not clearly leading on electrification (see Section 1). In order to assess the additional benefits of the forthcoming EU Clean Corporate Vehicles legislation on Made-in-EU EV production, we have analysed the impact of EU fleet targets on the demand for EVs produced in the EU under two scenarios.

Being Europe’s largest manufacturing country, the benefits for electric car production in Germany are particularly big. Results for Germany can be found in the annex.

This potential increase is crucial for Europe. It proves the CCV initiative is essential for growing the European manufacturing scale and keeping our domestic EV supply chain competitive. It achieves this industrial boost without needing to raise the ambition of current CO₂ emission standards.

To fully unlock the potential of the corporate car market to drive both the clean transition and the competitiveness of European car manufacturers, the European Commission should: