The Italian true fleet market surged in March, with a 12.5% rise in registrations putting paid to concerns the market was slowing.

The Italian true fleet market recorded a 12.5% rise in registrations.

Latest figures from Dataforce show the true fleet growth – follows February’s +5.1% and January’s +9.2% rises – compares to an 11.9% increase for the private market and a +48.4% rise from special channel, leading the total market to rise 19.3% to 232,000 units.

Within the true fleet top 10, the Panda retained the top spot and was one of five Fiats placed. However, Dataforce also noted the growth from Volkswagen’s second-generation Tiguan, which has registered over 500 units a month since September 2016 and saw its best month on record ever in March with 710 units registered.

Placing this into context the previous generation’s highest volume was a little over half that with 313 units in January 2009. Also notable was the Ford Fiesta – with a new version due later in the year it also achieved its best month ever recording 1,900 units in March. This is only the third month ever where it has reached a four-digit finish, the others being 1,235 units (Feb 2017) and 1,305 units (May 2016).

Dataforce also looked in more detail at the +48.4% rise from special channels, which contains figures from rentals, dealerships and manufacturers, and noted that both September and October 2016 delivered higher growth rates of 60.8% and 52.5% respectively.

However the volume, standing 58,042 units for March, beat February’s record-breaking total of 46,108 units, which was the highest ever recorded since Italian Dataforce records began in January 2004. Fiat was unsurprisingly the OEM with the highest volume, registering three times more than its nearest competitor VW and collecting the top five places for model ranking with the Tipo in the top spot with 4,109 units.