EVwire brief: Katoen Natie, a Belgian logistics and industrial-services group, is swapping more than 1,000 combustion cars out of its fleet for electric ones from the BMW Group, with the BMW and Mini models due on the road by the end of 2027.
By BMW's reckoning, it is the biggest single batch of electric company cars any one carmaker has sold into Belgium so far.
“For us, electrification is not a standalone project but a logical next step within a broader energy and sustainability strategy.”
The majority of the vehicles in the deal are expected to be BMW iX1 units
BMW has not said exactly which models make up the order. The bulk is expected to be BMW iX1s and electric Mini Countrymans, with newer Neue Klasse cars, the iX3 and the just-revealed i3, also folded in.
For Katoen Natie, the cars are one piece of a larger energy setup. The group already runs on solar and wind it generates at its own sites, paired with battery storage and software that manages the flow, and the new EVs are meant to plug into that same system.
Context:
To support its upcoming fleet, Katoen Natie will roll out its own charging network across its Belgian sites, timed by software to draw power when its panels and turbines are producing and the grid can spare it. What Katoen Natie has not spelled out is how big its Belgian car fleet is overall, how much of it these 1,000-plus EVs cover, or whether future orders will be electric-only.
Some BMW iX3 units are expected to be included in the order as well
The pairing is not new. Katoen Natie already runs logistics for BMW's vehicle production in Thailand, and BMW reckons the Belgian deal could widen into charging, digital mobility services, and logistics work, without saying yet what that would look like.
BMW has been racking up Belgian fleet wins lately. Back in December, consulting firm PwC Belgium picked up 723 EVs from the group, a mix of 300 Mini Acemans and 423 BMW iX1s.
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