The European True Fleet Markets are currently performing very well. Looking at 17 countries in Europe, the results for the first nine months of 2015 are more than positive. Compared to January-September 2014, 14 out of those 17 markets show growing volumes for the True Fleet Channel (commercial registrations without manufacturers, dealerships and

Rent-A-Cars). Only in Finland, Latvia and Norway were True Fleet registrations declining. Overall True Fleets reached double-digit growth of 11.1%.

The result for Europe in total is closely linked to the ‘Big Five’ – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, since they represent more than 70% of all True Fleets registrations in Europe.

Despite the already good performance in 2014, registrations are still outperforming those in the previous year:

True Fleets France Germany Italy    Spain       UK           Euro 5

September +9.3% 12.8% +28.5% +37.3%   +11.3%   +14.0%

Jan–Sep 2015 +8.8% +9.8% +18.9% +32.2%     +8.3%     +11.5%

Italy and especially Spain are recovering impressively, both achieving the highest growth rate in 2015 so far with + 28.5% and + 37.3% respectively. On the other hand, France, Germany and the United Kingdom are remarkable as well, reaching the highest volume in years.

Beside the EU-5 there are a lot of further markets with a successful trend and double-digit growth rates.

The True Fleet Market in Belgium is very close to Spain with only some 2,000 registrations behind year-to-date. Although the Netherlands is in good shape (+ 15.2%) Poland was able to overtake and to jump to 7th place in the ranking of the European Fleet markets. An increase of 50.1% is certainly noteworthy but the volume for True Fleets in Lithuania in the first nine months makes up less than 1% in the UK.

True Fleets Jan-Sept 2015

• Austria +1.5%

• Belgium +5.0%

• Czech Republic + 20.5%

• Denmark +14.2%

• Finland -7.3%

• Latvia -4.1%

• Lithuania +50.1%

• Netherlands +15.2%

• Norway -4.2%

• Poland +26.8%

• Slovakia +2.2%

• Sweden +4.3%

A remarkable change of balance However, looking at sheer volume is only one aspect.

From my point of view the development of share within the channel mix is comparably thrilling because it clearly indicates the growing importance of True Fleets.

In all ‘Big Five’ markets, the year-to-date growth rates for True Fleets were higher than in the Private Markets. Even in Spain where the Private Market is still supported by an on-going scrappage scheme. In Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Poland the picture is similar: True Fleets are on the rise while the Private channel is still not recovering. Consequently the share of Private Market is declining and the True Fleet Channel is becoming more and more important. Until 2011, Private customers were accounting for more than 50% of all new Passenger Car registrations. Currently this level does not seem to be reachable again. So in case you are responsible for fleet business in some way: there might be a promising future ahead.

A successful year for light commercial vehicles as well The biggest LCV True Fleet Markets in Europe are France and the United Kingdom followed by Germany, Italy and Spain. The performance for January until September 2015 is not as impressive as that for Passenger

Cars but successful nevertheless with a growth rate of 5.6%. This result is very much driven by Spain and the United Kingdom (+ 40.2% and + 20.8% respectively).

Italy achieved a moderate increase of 3.9%; Germany (+ 0.6%) and France (- 0.8%) are rather flat.