A small upsurge in French true fleet registrations last month helped drive the market to a new record value.

The 3008 and 5008 helped Peugeot retain its French true fleet top spot in March.

The research by Nils Wehner at Dataforce showed March’s 2.2% rise in true fleet registrations marked the 11th consecutive month of increase – albeit lower than in previous months, leading to a Q1 growth figure of 9.4%.

This compares to a 3.5% rise in the private market in March while special channels saw a 0.4% rise. Overall, French new car registrations were up 2.2% last month, finished at around 231,000 units.

Within the OEM true fleet ranking, the top four all retained their positions from March 2017. Renault took the lead, followed by Peugeot with 13.5% growth due to the 3008 and 5008, both of which also took the first two positions in fleet’s SUV ranking. Citroën was in third while Volkswagen finished in fourth.

Ford jumped two positions to come in fifth due to growth of 34.4%, helped by the hybrid version of the Ford Mondeo along with the Fiesta, Focus and EcoSport. The rest of the line-up was completed by Audi, Mercedes, Fiat, BMW and Toyota, with Fiat raising registrations by 54.5% and achieving its highest market share since December 2010 (3.5%).