Van fleets plan to carry on buying petrol and diesel vehicles

The figure is especially concerning as similar surveys in 2023 and 2024 put the figure at 62% and 64%, indicating that in the past three years electric vans are being seen as unsuitable for more and more transport operations, despite the number of EVs being sold increasing during that time.

The figures were revealed in the 2025 Arval Mobility Observatory Barometer. When asked to predict the percentage of battery electric vans on their fleets in 2028, the response was 14%. This compares to 15% in 2024 and 18% in 2023, when the same question was asked. There were similar results for plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vans, at 14% this year against 15% in 2024 and 11% in 2023.

John Peters, head of Arval Mobility Observatory in the UK, said: “This question is one of the most interesting in the Arval Mobility Observatory Barometer, looking at how van fleets expect the fuel mix of their fleets to change within the next three years. Unavoidably, the key finding here is a limited expectation that adoption of battery, PHEV and hydrogen vans will noticeably rise. In fact, there is a general feeling that the percentage of traditional diesel and petrol vehicles will increase instead.”

The research suggests that fleet sentiment has changed due to limitations around range, payload and charging, which create operational compromises that some operators were finding difficult to resolve.

“These are almost certainly the reasons why many of our respondents are unconvinced about the potential for adoption,” added Peters. “Indeed, much of the work being carried out by the Arval UK consultancy team is aimed at helping customers find solutions to these issues. However, it remains our belief that these predictions are overly pessimistic and that use of both electric and PHEV vans will rise substantially by the end of the decade.”