Dusseldorf The legislature also wants to convince company car drivers of electromobility with purchase bonuses and tax advantages. Because company cars are responsible for a large part of the climate-damaging CO2 emissions in traffic. But the DAX companies are still reluctant, shows a survey by the Handelsblatt.
The fleets of the companies surveyed will continue to be powered primarily by diesel and gasoline in 2021, followed by semi-electric plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Pure electric vehicles hardly play a role in company cars.
Company car drivers are currently benefiting from electric drives. While drivers of a company car with a combustion engine have to pay tax on one percent of the gross list price per month as a pecuniary benefit, most purely electric cars only pay 0.25 percent, while expensive company cars and plug-in hybrids still pay 0.5 percent.
The ecological benefits of plug-in hybrids are controversial. Without charged batteries, the models have hardly any consumption advantages. On the contrary: The additional weight due to the double drive can even result in the models emitting more CO2 than combustion engines.
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Switching to pure electric vehicles is therefore the only long-term solution to improve the carbon footprint of the fleets. But many companies are still clearly lagging behind.
An energy company, of all things, is a pioneer in the conversion to electric fleets: According to its own information, Eon has already converted its company fleet relatively broadly. The company’s fleet consists of 20 percent purely battery-operated vehicles and a further 30 percent plug-in hybrids. Around half of the Eon fleet is still powered by an internal combustion engine. In the case of classic company cars, almost exclusively electric and e-hybrid vehicles are now ordered.
The engine manufacturer MTU currently has an electric car share of nine percent, which puts it in second place in the ranking. The proportion of plug-in hybrids is 21 percent – so the company’s vehicle fleet still consists of 70 percent combustion engines. But it should not stay that way, promises a company spokesman. “A step-by-step changeover to a pure electric inventory is planned by 2030.”
Eight percent of all electric vehicles are in the company fleet of Deutsche Börse AG, while the proportion of hybrids is 22 percent. Here, too, combustion engines have a share of 70 percent. “We support and promote the switch from combustion to electric vehicles within our company car fleet,” said a company spokeswoman. For example, you can also set up your own charging stations. However, there is no compulsion to use electric vehicles. Among the company’s new registrations in 2021, the proportion of plug-in hybrids was just under 50 percent.
At the German software manufacturer SAP, the proportion of pure electric vehicles is seven percent. 13 percent of the Group’s fleet consists of plug-in hybrids. Here, too, the current incinerator share of 80 percent should decrease significantly. Internally, the group has set an end date for the combustion engine. “From January 1, 2025, all employees who are entitled to a vehicle can only order emission-free vehicles,” said a company spokesman.
Around six percent of Allianz Deutschland’s fleet is purely electric – but this figure will shortly increase to almost eleven percent if vehicles that have already been ordered are delivered, the company announced. The company reports that semi-electric models already make up the majority of the fleet.
Two thirds of the fleet consists of plug-in hybrids, the rest – almost 28 percent – of combustion engines. The company expects a pure e-fleet in about three years, “when old leasing contracts have expired,” said a spokeswoman for Allianz.
Siemens Energy has set itself the goal of being completely free of CO2 emissions by 2030. Employees who choose an electric company car are therefore rewarded. At the moment, however, the company’s fleet consists of just six percent pure electric cars, seven percent plug-in hybrids and a whopping 87 percent combustion.
The situation is similar with the Dax group Henkel from Düsseldorf: a slim five percent of the company’s fleet is purely electric. The share of plug-in hybrids is currently six percent. Henkel has a combustion share of 89 percent. The Group has some catching up to do on the way to becoming a climate-friendly fleet.
The companies Beiersdorf and Covestro do not use any plug-in hybrids at all. “The use of plug-in hybrids is generally not taken into account for reasons of sustainability,” said a company spokeswoman from Beiersdorf. For sustainability reasons, Covestro does not have any plug-ins in its portfolio either.
Energy company without electric cars
Energy giant RWE, on the other hand, has a comparatively high proportion of hybrids: namely 31 percent of the vehicle fleet. Meanwhile, pure electric vehicles in the energy company’s fleet only make up three percent, combustion engines make up 66.
The situation is similar at Deutsche Bank. At 21 percent, the proportion of plug-ins is quite high; here too, e-cars only make up three percent. The combustion engines make up a whopping 76 percent.
BASF and Siemens do not do well in the survey either. At three percent at BASF and two percent at Siemens, the proportion of electrical equipment in company fleets is very low. While the chemical company has 18 percent plug-in hybrids in its portfolio, Siemens only has six percent – and thus 92 percent combustion.
Sartorius also wants to say goodbye to plug-in hybrids in the near future. The company’s fleet currently includes 15 percent of e and hybrid vehicles. “However, plug-in hybrids have not been ordered since mid-2021,” says the company, as the electric range is too short. However, the company is not planning a complete changeover for the time being.
Many companies want to reveal how many electric cars are in their fleet, but not how many of them are purely battery-powered. Qiagen, for example, stated that the company was rapidly expanding its share of hybrid and electric vehicles, which currently make up around a quarter of its company fleet. Depending on the necessary charging infrastructure and the manufacturers’ delivery times, the complete changeover could take place in 2023. “Our goal of a completely climate-neutral company fleet could thus be achieved by 2025.”
Deutsche Telekom states that the electrical share of new company vehicle orders is around 30 percent. However, a company spokesman explains that they have not set a specific target date for converting to an electric fleet. This is dependent on transformation processes in the market.
Delivery times and charging infrastructure are slowing down the conversion of vehicle fleets
Many companies are very reluctant to provide specific figures. Puma plans to increase the proportion of electric vehicles to a third by the second quarter of 2022, according to its own information. The group also does not support plug-in hybrids; instead, Puma wants to rely on vehicles with purely battery-electric drives or vehicles with fuel cells (hydrogen).
Upon request, Daimler did not provide any specific figures for its own fleet either. “As part of our ‘Ambition 2039’ we aim to electrify our entire fleet of company cars,” said a company spokesman.
Auto supplier Continental stated that it would favor vehicles with lower CO2 emissions through a series of measures – the focus here is on electric cars and plug-in hybrids. A bonus-malus system regulates financial incentives for employees.
The chip manufacturer Infineon said that the majority of the upcoming orders were going to be electric vehicles – namely more than 50 percent of the orders. Infineon aims to be climate neutral by 2030. Adidas stated that the number of e-vehicles is currently in the three-digit range.
Other large German companies expressly did not want to disclose the current inventory of their vehicle fleets or did not provide any information.
Almost all companies stated that the conversion was mainly suffering from the poor charging infrastructure and the lack of range of the electric vehicles. In the field service in particular, the expansion of the green fleet is currently still dependent on conditions such as the local availability of charging stations, said a spokesman for Qiagen. To prevent this, companies such as Deutsche Börse, Continental, MTU and Sartorius are planning to offer employees charging options on the company premises.
Another reason for the slow changeover was given by the groups to long delivery times for the vehicles. “The lack of delivery of certain semiconductor components, which is caused by the current global supply bottleneck for semiconductors, led us to significant operational disruptions,” said the car manufacturer Daimler on request. As a result, there are equipment restrictions in various series. “This also results in delays in delivery.”
In addition to electrified fleets, many companies such as Beiersdorf, Deutsche Telekom or Sartorius also provide further incentives for climate-friendliness, such as a wide range of mobility alternatives such as Bahncard, job ticket, “business bikes” or mobility budgets.
Particularly heavy vehicles in German fleets
Not only in the Dax, but in the entire German economy, the switch to electric company cars is slow. They are crucial for climate protection: In 2020, the share of commercially used vehicles in CO2 emissions from new cars was a full 76 percent, according to the European umbrella association Transport & Environment (T&E) in its study “Germany’s tax policy for company cars”. Compared to private cars, commercial vehicles drive twice as many kilometers.
The organization therefore sees great potential for savings in company fleets – otherwise Germany’s climate policy ambitions would be thwarted, according to the study. Particularly worrying: In the German fleets, the proportion of heavy vehicles in the luxury class is particularly high. The resulting emissions are therefore higher in Germany than in all other large European markets.
The overall effect of reducing CO2 in the transport sector would be really great: In an analysis, Prognos calculated that CO2 and fine dust emissions from the entire car fleet in Germany could be reduced by more than 30 percent. Among other things, companies would only have to register zero-emission vehicles by 2030.
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