“We launched a campaign for electric vehicles, thinking about a more sustainable future.”

Going to work, visiting family and friends, going on vacation… The car remains today the favourite means of transport. On the counter, mobility issues are part of the daily lives of citizens over the days: How to reduce your carbon footprint? How to promote a softer mobility? How to develop new autonomous modes of transport? In recent years, the rise of electric vehicles has encouraged people to reconsider their choice in terms of mobility.

On this road towards a more sustainable future, a hurdle remains: the cost of these vehicles is still an obstacle to purchase. In Portugal, consumers, very enthusiastic about electric cars, are strongly convinced of their potential…

Let’s meet Pedro Nuno Ferreira, economist and marketing specialist at BNP Paribas Personal Finance in Portugal, to discover their new campaign to finance electric vehicles!

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Could you introduce yourself?

I’m Pedro Nuno Ferreira, an economist and marketer at BNP Paribas Personal Finance, passionate about people, sales, the mobility ecosystem and digital transformation. In 2014, I joined Cetelem to develop the car and motorcycle financing business.

In my path of helping others, I’m a professor of Marketing & Sales at AESE Business School.

My motto? “Do not lose any business as far as it depends on us!” — obviously I apply it every day in my professional life!

Could you tell us more about the campaign?

It all started when we increased the pace of transformation of our business, our operating models and our offers in line with our purpose “promote access to more responsible and sustainable consumption to support our customers and partners”. And to give evidence about our commitment to help our customers to reduce their environmental footprint in mobility.

We knew that the vast majority of Portuguese people believe in the future of electric vehicles but the cost remained an obstacle for buying them, so we decided to launch a specific campaign for 100% electric vehicles, an attractive offer, thinking about a more sustainable future. Since the demand was significant, what was a campaign became a permanent financial product that we still have today, adapting regularly to the conditions to the market, which now also includes hybrid vehicles, for example.

This product was available only through our channels, and we felt that it could be a win-win situation if we extended the offer to all our auto partners, with special conditions. We did it in the following year, when we launched a new car campaign, making it available in all points of sale of our partner.

The rationale was that by creating a tariff that is more competitive, this generates interest in the customer who starts to consider more expensive vehicles, that sometimes is the case with some of the electric vehicles. For the dealerships, the idea was to make a competitive pricing available to their end customers that would not reduce their profitability.

The campaign ended in 2021. Would you have any feedbacks to share?

We have had a good acceptance, in line with our forecast. We had good public visibility of our offer, positively impacting our day-to-day business. The market appreciated the offer and partners have been able to attract good quality customers. Along the way, we have already financed over 14 million euros in electric vehicles and automotive P-HEV (hybrid) vehicles up to 50g CO2/km. Which can be considered a very positive sign, since it is an expanding market, but still very embryonic, representing only a market share of approximately 7.5%.

Do you plan to launch a similar campaign in 2022?

Yes, we will continue to have campaigns to finance electric vehicles, that will also be available in all our channels, including on our partners’ establishments. We continue developing offers to meet the new needs of our customers and partners.