Leasing and operating lease multinational Arval, owned by French financial institution BNP Paribas, has expanded the scope and volume of its global alliance with fleet partners with the addition of Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Auto Service (SMAS), which has approximately 570,000 cars under management and ranks 13th in Fleet People‘s ranking of global fleet managers.
Arval currently has a global agreement with Canada’s Element Fleet Management, the seventh largest fleet manager according to this publication’s ranking, with 1.53 million vehicles in its portfolio.
Together with Element, Arval, which ranks sixth globally with 1.6 million vehicles, has a pact that allows it to reach corporate customers in North America, a spectrum that now increases with the incorporation of Sumitomo, the ninth global fleet manager with a strong footprint in the business in areas such as Japan, Thailand, India and Indonesia.
In total, the three-way alliance between Arval, Element and Sumitomo now controls a volume of 3.7 million vehicles, at a crucial time for a car rental, subscription, mobility and servicing industry where mergers, deals and concentrations are happening fast.
In addition to these 3.7 million, a further 700,000 units are made up of the other smaller partners that are also integrated in the Element-Arval Alliance, which dates back to 1995 and now covers 56 countries.
The full alliance’s shelf partners that bring the total managed fleet figure to 4.4 million are Avis Fleet in Southern Africa, Johnson & Perrott in Ireland, Mareauto in Ecuador, RDA Mobility in Argentina and Uruguay and the latest and most recent addition, Sixt Mega Rent in the regions of Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as Sixt Transporent in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In terms of global managed fleet volume, the triple alliance signed by Arval/Element/Sumitomo plus its six additional partners would make the group the third largest car rental, leasing and managed fleet operator in the world, behind only Volkswagen, with 10.3 million and Toyota, with 4.7 million units.
The agreement, as explained by Arval, highlights the joint commitment of the three companies to guide customers in the transition to sustainable fleets and help them achieve their Corporate Social Responsibility goals.
«At a time when the fleet and mobility landscape is rapidly evolving, the renewal of the agreement with Sumitomo marks the continuation of a stable, productive and long-term partnership that provides our global customers with superior and innovative services, tools and consulting expertise,» said Alain van Groenendael, president of Arval, about the agreement.
