BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Arval have signed a pan-European partnership agreement with the luxury automotive manufacturer ZEEKR.
This collaboration will take advantage of ZEEKR's innovative positioning in the electric vehicles market, combined with deep knowledge of the European automotive and regulatory ecosystem and the experience of BNP Paribas Personal Finance in loans and leases and Arval in full-service leasing.
The partnerships will cover several countries in ZEEKR’s fast European go-to-market plan, having started in September in the Netherlands and Sweden, followed in 2024 by Germany. This complements the competitive offers in the ZEEKR One-Stop-Shop to accelerate the shift to electric mobility.
Through the strategic partnership, Chinese-owned ZEEKR will ultimately gain access and acceptance to the European leasing and financial services market through the expertise of BNP Paribas Mobility, a well-known and established brand in the Europe.
Many Chinese auto companies are increasingly focusing on partnerships to enter the European markets where they are likely to make more profit than they will in local Chinese markets.
We have recently seen Chinese car brands partnering with established European dealer groups to give them a ready access to the market under the umbrella of a trusted dealer brand, and we are slowly starting to see the same thing happen with partnerships with knowledgeable and established European financial service companies.
As part of the BNP Paribas Mobility initiative, the collaboration with ZEEKR also involves other BNP Paribas businesses: BNP Paribas Cardif offers for insurances, Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB) for full-fledged banking services, including Payment Services for Card transactions (through Axepta BNP Paribas).
Spiros Fotinos, CEO of ZEEKR Europe says: “We are proud to announce that we have established strong financial partnerships with BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Arval, both of which have extensive experience in the automotive financial services space. Through these partners, ZEEKR Finance, will be able to offer a full suite of products allowing customers to select the one that suits them best. This is a key element of our One-Stop-Shop strategy that bundles all EV related services into one place.”
Charlotte Dennery (pictured), CEO of BNP Paribas Personal Finance declared: “We are delighted to begin a strategic partnership with ZEEKR. BNP Paribas Personal Finance‘s expertise and experience of international mobility financing partnerships are a key asset for making this cooperation a success. We are also glad to extend our partnership within the Geely universe, in addition to our existing joint-ventures in China and our cooperations with Volvo and Polestar in Europe.”
Alain van Groenendael, Chairman and CEO of Arval added: “This partnership with a key player is a new step to meet our ambition to lease 700,000 electrified vehicles as part of our global fleet by 2025 and supporting our clients in their energy transition. We look forward to developing new journeys and further support them with solutions to successfully engage in the energetic transition challenge and opportunities in Europe.”
