BONUS: Company EV Fleets Are WAY More Important Than You Think

EV News Daily - Technology and Business of EVs

Martyn Lee

Business, Leisure, Technology, Automotive

4.8 • 749 Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In November 2021, the Belgian parliament passed a tax reform that most Europeans never heard about. It phased out depreciation write-offs for petrol and diesel company cars. By 2026, the deduction disappeared entirely — combustion-engine company cars became zero per cent tax-deductible. Battery-electric vehicles stayed at 100 per cent.

The market responded without hesitation.

Corporate electric vehicle uptake surged — climbing 13 to 15 percentage points per year. By 2025, Belgium's fleet zero-emission vehicle share hit 54.2 per cent. In 2021, it was 8.8 per cent. Over the same period, Germany — Europe's industrial heavyweight — crept to 19.1 per cent.

Belgium proved something simple: change the tax, change the market. Fast.

Those precedent matters because in December 2025, the European Commission unveiled a regulation that could remake how Europeans buy, drive and eventually inherit their cars.

The Clean Corporate Vehicles Regulation (CCVR) — part of the wider Automotive Package — sets out to electrify corporate fleets, the single largest slice of Europe's new car market. The strategy is elegant: turn company cars into a conveyor belt that pushes affordable electric vehicles into the hands of ordinary drivers within a few years.

If Europe wants to change what people drive, it should start with the cars that businesses buy in bulk, run hard and swap out quickly so the rest of us can buy them second hand.

The Commission agrees with that much. Its proposal for a Clean Corporate Vehicles Regulation, tucked into the EU’s automotive package, aims to push corporate fleets towards zero and low emission vehicles from 2030.

Transport & Environment, the clean transport group that spends its days reading the small print, has now read it. It likes the premise. But it does not like the numbers.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Potential.
0:02.0	Potential can sometimes feel daunting, scary.
0:06.0	But today's the day you decide to act on it,
0:10.0	with a higher technical qualification.
0:13.0	Designed with employers, it will give you the skills you need to land the job you want,
0:18.0	because today is your day. When anything is possible, if you make it happen.
0:25.3	It all starts with skills. See how you can get started. Search skills for life. Potential. Potential can
0:33.5	sometimes feel daunting, scary. But today's the day you decide to act on it with a higher technical qualification.
0:43.2	Designed with employers, it will give you the skills you need to land the job you want
0:47.8	because today is your day.
0:51.5	When anything is possible, if you make it happen. It all starts with skills. See how you can
0:57.7	get started. Search skills for life. Welcome back to EV News Daily. Welcome to a special bonus edition of the podcast
1:03.6	and welcome to a show that I've called why Fleet EV rules are way more important than you think. Let me tell you a story.
1:11.6	In November 2021, the Belgium Parliament passed a tax reform that most Europeans never even heard about.
1:17.9	It phased out the depreciation write-offs for gas guzzlers.
1:22.6	And by 2026, now that deduction is completely gone.
1:33.2	Combustion-engined company cars became 0% tax deductible.
1:40.7	But a battery electric vehicle stays 100%. And that signal was unmistakable. So the market responded with no hesitation back in 2021. Corporate EV uptakes surged, climbing between
1:46.1	about 13 and 15% every single year. And by last year, Belgium's fleet zero emission vehicle share
1:53.6	was 54.2%. In 2021, corporates were at 8.8%. It's gone from 8.8 to 54% just by changing one little
2:06.3	itsy-bitsy tax rule to persuade corporate fleets to go easy. Over the same period, Germany,
2:11.8	Europe's industrial heavyweight, has kind of lumbered towards 19%. Yay, go Belgium. It proves something simple. Change a tax
	...

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