The cost of moving finished vehicles around Europe is rising and becoming less predictable, encouraging automotive manufacturers to seek new ways to move cars from production sites to their markets. Our latest intermodal corridor, which connects Zeebrugge in Belgium with Aiud in Romania, has been designed to support manufacturers under pressure to respond to this changing environment.

What’s Accelerating Cost Volatility?

The Q1 2026 update of the European Finished Vehicle Logistics Cost Index, developed by the Association of European Vehicle Logistics (ECG) and PwC, revealed that the cost of finished-vehicle logistics was almost 60% higher in March 2026 than in January 2019. However, looking back to 2019 risks concealing how much the pressure has ramped up this year. European road freight rates have risen sharply in 2026, with IRU, the World Road Transport Organisation, reporting a 15.2% year-on-year increase in contract rates in Q2, which compounded an 8.9% rise in Q1.

These cost increases are driven primarily by rising diesel prices, but this is not the only factor. Road tolling is also becoming a larger cost and even in countries where tolls have not increased significantly, toll systems are typically becoming more sophisticated, with charges increasingly linked to vehicle weight and emissions class.

The Unique Challenge for Automotive OEMs

For automotive manufacturers, this creates a challenge that goes beyond costs. In practice, the EU Single Market remains fragmented for long-distance, cross-border road transport. Moving goods by road across the continent means navigating multiple national charging regimes and regulatory requirements.

There have been encouraging signs that the political will exists to solve this problem. In May, the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism backed amendments to the Eurovignette Directive, aimed at making tolling and infrastructure charging rules more practical and easier to apply across borders.

Despite that, greater harmonisation is still a long way off and, in the meantime, finished vehicles remain particularly exposed to the challenges created by geopolitical disturbances. A container of components can be stored, rerouted or consolidated relatively easily but cars are high-value, bulky assets that are often transported thousands of kilometres between production sites, ports, distribution hubs, dealerships and ultimately, the end-customer’s driveway.

Making the Case for Intermodal Transport

Intermodal transport, the utilisation of road and rail in this instance, can make an enormous difference, with rail replacing the long-distance miles and road used only for the first and last mile.

We have recently put this approach into practice through a new finished-vehicle rail corridor connecting Zeebrugge in Belgium with Aiud in Romania. The service is our first end-to-end vehicle rail operation in Europe and is designed to help automotive manufacturers reduce their dependence on long-distance road transport. By using Aiud as a regional distribution hub for Romania and neighbouring markets, the corridor combines the efficiency of rail with the flexibility of road transport for final delivery, creating a more predictable and resilient route to market.

Supply chains that are built with flexibility in mind can offer a higher level of reliability due to their ability to reroute cargo if their original routes face disruptions. In addition, the Zeebrugge-Aiud corridor can reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 55% compared with equivalent long-haul road transport, while limiting exposure to road toll increases, fuel-price volatility and the administrative complexities associated with cross-border road movements.

A Strategic Shift from Savings to Certainty

The question for automotive manufacturers is no longer simply how to reduce transport costs, but how to build supply chains that remain resilient in the face of rising costs, regulatory change and operational disruption. We are building a logistics network that can withstand changing fuel prices, toll regimes, capacity constraints and regulatory requirements, and intermodal corridors offer an answer. They enable manufacturers to have the resilience they need to navigate an increasingly complex and volatile environment for finished-vehicle logistics in Europe.

Find out more about our Finished Vehicle Logistics.