The firm’s data shows that while the European private market only achieved a slight increase of 1.2%, new passenger car registrations in the EU-5 true fleet markets (commercial registrations without manufacturers, dealerships and Rent-A-Cars) saw a remarkable double-digit growth rate of 12.1% compared to August 2013.

In all five markets the volume of new car registrations on fleet customers exceeded the previous year’s level.

Spain achieved the highest percentage increase with +26.0% followed by Italy (+18.1%). Germany (+12.1%) and the UK (+10.8%) saw double-digit growth as well. Dataforce added that the progress in France (+6.0%) might seem comparatively unimpressive but is certainly mentionable in the light of a declining private market (-5.6%).

August was a very successful month for the Volkswagen Group with Volkswagen and Audi holding position No. 1 and 2 in the brand ranking and boosting their fleet registrations by 39.2 and 20.4% respectively. The development of Porsche was even more significant with a 41.2% surplus.

The performance of Skoda was also very impressive. Thanks to a plus of 45.1% the manufacturer found its way into the top 10 fleet brands. Skoda was able to raise its registrations compared to August 2013 in all five countries. The same applies for Audi.

SEAT (+23.9% overall) saw a slight decline in the French market but performed well in its home market and particularly in Germany, Italy and the UK. In these three countries SEAT achieved the highest market share within the fleet sector so far.

The most prosperous vehicle segments in August were compact cars (+ 20.7%) and SUV (+ 35.0%) but the success was caused by different reasons. Within the compacts only two models (VW Golf, Peugeot 308) were accountable for more than 70% of the growth. The steeply rising registrations of SUV were spread by a huge variety of models. 14 out the top 15 SUV models from January to August 2014 achieved a volume increase in the current month. New entries like Mercedes GLA and Porsche Macan boosted the segment additionally. In France, the GLA already ranked on number 4 within the Sports Utility Vehicles in the true fleet market and in Spain it was only beaten by the Nissan Qashqai.