May brought the first negative result for the Italian true fleet market in 2018 while the overall market also saw a slight downturn.

The Stelvio continues to drive Alfa’s true fleet performance

Analysis by Nils Wehner at Dataforce finds that true fleet registrations declined 4.0% last month but still marked the second-best May for the sector. Special channels declined 9.4% while the private market was the only segment to achieve positive growth figures (+2.0%). The overall market finished at slightly more than 214,000 passenger car registrations, down by 1.9% compared to May 2017.

In terms of brand performance for true fleets, the top four slots were taken by Fiat, Volkswagen, Ford and Audi – the same as May 2017 – but the first positive growth for May was achieved by BMW in fifth. Supported by the X1, the brand-new X2 and both 2 Series models (Active Tourer and Gran Tourer) the manufacturer rose by 24.9% and climbed up two positions in the ranking ladder.

Jeep (sixth) saw sales surge by 122.4%, driven by the Compass, and continues to expand its record fleet market share. Mercedes was seventh followed by Alfa Romeo (eighth), which closely missed out on doubling its registrations (99.7%), aided by the Giulietta and the Stelvio.

Renault was ninth while Peugeot rounded out the top 10 ranking, growing by 34.2% over May 2017, helped again by the 3008 and 5008.

Dataforce also looked at fuel types and found that although France, Germany, Spain and the UK all saw diesel decline for the first five months of the year, diesel registrations were up 9.1% within the Italian true fleet market, although down 3.7% in May. And Italy also bucked the trend for petrol, with registrations down by 7.0% over year to date and down 29.2% in May.