GATE welcomes new CEO Elio Fonti. The pay-per-use formula will be extended to new brands

On October 1st, GATE changed its corporate structure. Founded as part of the Iveco Group and specializing in pay-per-use long-term rental solutions for electric vehicles no more than three years ago, GATE is now 51% owned by Dutch vendor finance company DLL and 49% by the Iveco Group. As announced in May, the two groups have established a joint venture with the aim of “further facilitating the energy transition in Europe.”

Given the significant role that GATE has managed to carve out for itself in recent years on the Italian market—the first market approached by the young company, but not the last—during a digital press conference, we had the opportunity to understand how the new structure will affect GATE’s near future, both strategically and commercially. Starting with the arrival of a new CEO, Elio Fonti, who took office at the beginning of October.

GATE’s new CEO, Elio Fonti

Fonti joined the Iveco Group in 2022 immediately after the spin-off and listing on the stock exchange, working in the Financial Services sector and closely following the launch of the GATE project. This project “has grown significantly in terms of size in Italy. Now we will try to guide GATE through this very delicate transition phase. This is a start-up that finds itself navigating a complex market and a phase of great change. We will need to have a structure capable of supporting the business volumes we expect.”

The new corporate structure will certainly lead to internal processes being adjusted, while little should change, according to CEO Fonti, in terms of GATE’s offering, which will continue to focus on electric mobility. “We see three areas of expansion: broadening the range offered by GATE within the IVECO perimeter, already in the coming months and looking ahead to 2026. The second area is the service model, which we will probably evolve to target different customer segments. The third is brand expansion to increase the pool of potential customers as much as possible.”

Future applications of GATE’s pay-per-use formula

In other words, the long-term pay-per-use rental offer with the proven pay-per-use formula will be extended not only to the new electric vans in the IVECO range, but also, and this is probably the most interesting news, to vehicles from other brands.

The actions of an organization such as GATE are, of course, guided by the continental regulatory scenario. The European roadmap is currently confirmed, with no changes to the deadlines, “but discussions are underway aimed at making the path more flexible for manufacturers,” said Fonti. “I don’t believe there will be a clear change of direction, but we will wait and see what happens.” Electrification among light vehicles and light trucks is on the rise, as we know, albeit with numbers still low.

Finally, GATE has always stated that it chose Italy as the starting point for the launch of the project, but that it is also looking at other European countries. We asked Elio Fonti about this. “We had a geographical growth plan, which is still in place. The goal is to expand into the main European markets, although we cannot yet say what the sequence of the next markets will be. We have two branches in France and Germany that are trying to build the business, but the target is to be present in other European countries within the next few years.”