Dave Tomlinson for Peugeot, Opel, and Citroen

With over four years in the automotive industry and two of those as a fleet specialist at dealer level, Dave Tomlinson has moved into the National Fleet Manager role for Auto Distributors New Zealand, which distributes Peugeot, Citroen and Opel on behalf of those brands parent company Stellantis. 

We spoke to Dave about the strategies behind successfully integrating three future focused European brands into today’s New Zealand fleet sector.

“It’s important for the fleet sector here to understand that the way towards growth – sustainable growth – is to adopt a closer alignment with the European market whose sustainability goals align closely with ours,” explains Dave. “In the European market we see how low emissions brands like Peugeot, Opel and Citroen lead in sales.

“Traditionally, the Kiwi fleet sector tends to follow the Australian market whose sustainability goals do not align with ours as much as they should.”

We can see this in a variety of fleet-related activities: high emissions buying habits, the late adoption of electric vehicles and limited clean car policies. 

“I’m not saying Australian trends are wrong,” says Dave, “but they are not the way we should be moving if we are to realise the directions our government is signalling when it comes to transport. 

‘’To achieve the goals being set out by government and transport agencies, we need to look more closely at what Europe is doing when it comes to trends and product selection.” 

“In New Zealand especially, commercial vehicles are the key to improved emissions,” explains Dave, “and Stellantis has the stated goal of being the largest sustainable commercial fleet provider across all the brands it represents. 

“Reducing emissions by making smart and sustainable transport choices is the easiest road for businesses to take,” says Dave. “And that includes smart utilisation of vehicles like SUVs in place of utility vehicles or vans.

“While it is important to have sustainable vehicles for personalised and private transport, an efficient, realistically priced and utilitarian light commercial fleet is essential,” says Dave. “It’s very important for businesses to assess the usage case of their fleet and explore options appropriately, a great place to start being a fleet specialist at one of our dealerships.”

Having the vehicles alone is not enough, he adds. “Businesses want to do the right thing when it comes to being environmentally responsible and without the correct onboarding and infrastructure investments, businesses won’t see the real-world return on their EV/PHEV fleet.

“When it comes to an organisation’s vehicles, the traditional approach to improving emissions has been to move to a hybrid fleet. While this is a great step and has gotten us to where New Zealand is now, it won’t get us to where our nation’s emissions target points us. The next step is Electric or Plug-in-Hybrid. This includes looking at one of our largest fleet segments, light commercial.”

The Peugeot Partner van is already on the ground as a regular ICE van and recently, we have seen the arrival of the pure all-electric version. The petrol variant incurs no clean car fee while the all-electric version is rebate eligible. 

It’s larger stablemate – the Expert – was introduced a year or so ago as a light commercial ICE ‘challenger’ to the status quo in terms of its cargo versus CO2 versus cost equation. 

At time of writing, Peugeot NZ was finalising the pricing and specification of the all-electric e-Expert, a vehicle which reinforces Stellantis’s stated goal.

While at present Opel doesn’t have a commercial vehicle in its New Zealand range, Dave points out the brand has its own merits. 

“The Opel brand is the one we are most excited about,” he admits “as the rapid deployment of new models is demonstrating. 
“We believe the Opel range by the end of this year will offer a complete electric vehicle solution for buyers who again, have sustainability and innovation as their core motivator. 

“The vehicles align well with the New Zealand market,” says Dave, “and in addition to having a well- established history and proven track record have received a wealth of European awards. All these considerations will see Opel becoming a major brand here very quickly.”

With both the Opel and Peugeot brands providing an electric solution which leverages vehicle excellence off family use to the business sector and for lower emission light commercial vehicles respectively, the small to medium business sector especially is well catered for. 

For Stellantis, says Dave, this is not a one-way street. “While we should be embracing European trends, as a parent company, Stellantis is investing heavily in New Zealand, which it sees as being an excellent case study for rapid adoption of its product range in a tightly regulated environment.

“Our dealerships have committed to training their representatives to be well equipped to present quality product with quality and compelling solutions for what is the most common question asked by businesses: how can we lower our carbon emissions without compromising on function?

“It is possible to tick a ‘green’ box by having an electric or electrified commercial vehicle or two in a fleet of regular ICE commercials, but to gain the maximum benefit and be doing the right thing environmentally, means looking at all aspects of electric vehicle management and fit-for-purpose solutions. 

“These solutions are what we have trained our dealerships to deliver, along with our range of vehicles which are sustainable from their manufacture right through to their end-of-life disposal.      

“We provide a holistic approach for customers to transition easily and effectively to electric vehicles with dealers prepared and trained to offer expertise to facilitate this,” summarises Dave.

To discuss how a Peugeot, Opel or Citroen can be an advantage to your fleet, contact Dave on 021 042 0540 or email davet@autodistributorsnz.com.