VIEWPOINT: The trends creating a sweet spot for smarter fleet finance

The mobility transition is being driven by two converging trends: evolving customer expectations, and the push towards electrification - with fleet financing making it possible.

Considering the demand side, corporate buyers are no longer content with simply owning vehicles and are increasingly opting for fleet leasing and financing solutions over outright ownership. They want flexibility, cost predictability, and scalability. This trend is particularly pronounced in sectors with fluctuating demand, such as logistics and ride-hailing, where businesses need to scale up or down quickly without the burden of asset ownership. As such, usership models like contract hire, operational leasing, and subscriptions are gaining traction. In addition, corporate ESG commitments and growing environmental awareness mean buyers want electric fleets and the ability to refresh vehicles easily and frequently.

Usership isn’t just a corporate thing, though; this shift is also influencing end consumers. We are in the era of Mobility-as-a-Service, where people are viewing vehicles increasingly as services rather than assets. Car subscriptions, salary sacrifice schemes, and on-demand rental services are changing how individuals access vehicles. These models technically fall under the fleet category, but they behave like consumer channels and therefore come with consumer expectations, such as seamless onboarding, transparent pricing, and digital-first experiences.

Moving to the supply side, automakers are facing mounting pressure to electrify due to binding regulatory mandates and policies, such as the UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate and the EU CO2 emissions regulation, which require all new cars and vans to be zero-emission by 2035. Compliance isn’t optional, and OEMs face steep financial penalties if they fail to meet these targets. To achieve them, OEMs are leaning heavily on fleet channels, pushing more EVs into leasing, rental, and corporate mobility programmes.

Smarter fleet finance

The shift from ownership to access makes sense operationally, but throwing EVs into the mix further increases risk and operational costs for finance providers. Companies now face far more moving parts (even if EVs themselves have fewer!), as they must continuously manage and track the value of each vehicle throughout its lifecycle.

Financing products have also evolved. Many now go beyond pure asset finance to offer full-service leasing, bundling in maintenance, servicing, insurance, and even charging infrastructure. While this adds value for customers, it also increases operational overheads and risk exposure for finance providers, who must manage not just the vehicle but the entire service surrounding it.

RV risk and multicycle financing

Finance companies are increasingly offering flexible products to support EV adoption, such as leasing with guaranteed buyback schemes, because the uncertainty around EV resale values makes it difficult for anyone else to take on the risk. As a result, residual value (RV) risk falls back on the finance companies.

Taking on EV RV risk requires more sophisticated and dynamic risk management strategies. EVs are returning from corporate fleets with low resale values, and finance companies understandably want to avoid the loss. Finance companies need to truly understand their vehicles, continuously monitor their values throughout the lifecycle, and be able to restructure contracts to stay flexible. For example, there could be mechanisms to adjust payments, revise residual values, or even trigger vehicle recall when market conditions or predicted resale values materially shift.

Another lever to mitigate this risk is diversifying remarketing approaches at end of term. Instead of a traditional sale, finance companies can take advantage by spreading vehicle costs across multiple leases and offering extended products such as maintenance, warranties, or service packages. This approach not only provides a recurring revenue stream but also boosts mobility and subscription business models.

The multi-life model is beneficial for sustainability and maximising vehicle utilisation, yet the challenge lies in tracking the overall portfolio value and monitoring each vehicle’s full journey from when it’s financed, when it’s sitting in inventory, and when it’s refinanced.

Automating flexibility with data

Managing high volumes of variable contracts can already be time-consuming and expensive. Now, add the continual monitoring of the vehicle and its value, pricing, and invoicing based on actual mileage, flexibly restructuring contracts. Suddenly, complexity and costs are hitting the gas.

Traditionally, automation meant standardisation - efficient, but inflexible. In fleet financing today, flexibility is no longer optional, and automation and high-quality data integration now represent the only realistic way to remain competitive. They enable finance companies to maintain flexibility at scale; for example, automatically adjusting payments, triggering contract renewal workflows, and efficiently tracking and re-leasing off-finance vehicles.

Modern vehicles are more connected than ever, offering an opportunity to tap into real-time vehicle data directly from the source. We are increasingly seeing OEMs and technology providers form partnerships to make this possible, enabling predictive maintenance, automated monitoring of usage and mileage, and data-driven contract management.

Beyond the vehicle itself, there is also huge potential in using data about the customers who drive vehicles. By understand ing how fleets are actually used, such as usage patterns and driver behaviour, finance companies can offer tailored and responsive financing.

Conclusion

Fleet financing used to be fairly simple: finance a vehicle, sign the papers, collect the payments, track depreciation, done. This simplicity no longer exists. Today both OEMs and corporate fleets are increasingly aligned in their push towards electric mobility, but the complexity is in the execution. Today’s winners in fleet financing are those who use data, automate previously manual tasks, and masterfully manage vehicles through not just one but multiple lifecycles.

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