UK true fleet registrations received an extra boost in March as fleet buyers looked to beat impending tax changes, latest Dataforce figures show.

UK sales and growth values, by brand.

Historically a strong month anyway due to the launch of new registration plates, March also saw car buyers bring forward purchases as they looked to capitalise on the more favourable tax option still on offer ahead of the new Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) legislation from 1 April.

As a result, true fleet registrations rose 12.6% compared to a 12.4% rise in special channels and 4.4% in private registrations. The total market registered 562,000 units, which was a rise of 8.4% compared to the previous March.

Looking at fuel types, petrol took the dominating share of 93% of the growth figures and 42.4% of all True Fleet registrations for March. Alternative fuels took 5.8% of the growth and 5% share of the March figures, with diesel rising 1.2% but still holding 52.6% of all registrations.

Dataforce also identifed the manufacturers benefiting from the surge, with eight scoring 1000+ volume growth in the month-on-month comparison.