True Fleet Market Europe continues to grow

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Despite a negative posting for the UK, the overall picture remained positive with a +6.8% growth for the month and a rise of +9.7% when compared to the same period last year. The Italian fleet market achieved another impressive month, with a year-to-date 5th month of double-digit growth.

In France, the growth rate of +8.6% for June is the lowest rate in the fleet market in 2016 so far. Nevertheless it’s the 11th month in a row with growing figures compared to last year. The market leader Renault was able to extend its leadership with +21.4% over June 2015 and a share of almost 28%. The Renault Clio is number one in the model ranking but the biggest improvement in absolute volume was achieved by the new SUV Kadjar, already ranked at number five overall. BMW (+22.1%, rank number 5) and Ford (+27.6%, rank number 8) performed very strong as well. The result for Opel (10th) was on par with June 2015.

In Germany both the Private and True Fleet Market performed very well in July. The brand ranking remained unchanged from positions 1 to 9 but three brands achieved remarkable growth rates for their fleet registrations: BMW (+28.0%, rank number 3), Ford (+26.4%, rank number 5) and Opel (+34.1%, rank number 7). In the ranking on model level there were many more changes. The Volkswagen Golf took the lead from the Volkswagen Passat, the Volkswagen Touran jumped from rank number 18 to 7th position and the Opel Astra re-entered the top-10 with an impressive growth rate of 62.9%. The winner regarding the absolute growth however is represented by the Czech Republic: it’s the Skoda Superb, ranking on 12th position behind Ford Focus and ahead of BMWs 5 Series.

The Italian fleet market is still on the rise. In fact the growth rate in June was lower compared to April and May 2016 but with +17.3% still very positive. With +16.8% the increase on year-to-date level is the highest among the big 5 countries. Market leader Fiat, Audi in second place, Renault (7th) and Opel (10th) all outperformed the average growth rate. Smart meanwhile tripled its fleet registrations. The SUV segment is extending its dominance and representing 28% of all TrueFleet registrations in June. Interesting to see that a huge variety of OEMs are fuelling the SUV trend, with 10 different brands participating in the success of the top-10 SUV models.

Spain had another month with a double-digit growth (+11.6%), with Renault overtaking Volkswagen to secure first place in brand ranking. Third place was achieved by Peugeot, improving by striking +64.8%. The models 208, 308 and especially the 2008 performed exceptionally well. The 308 was even ranked number two overall not very far behind the Seat Leon. Mercedes was in good shape as well increasing by 28.4%. The most successful Mercedes models in June were two SUVs with GLA class and GLC class respectively. For the year-to-date period the Mercedes C-Class is (still) slightly ahead.

In the UK, while June had a small drop of 0.8% when compared to the same month from last year there was still good news for the True Fleet market. Mercedes, BMW and Toyota achieved increases of +31.7%, +23.4% and +20.7% respectively. Within the Toyota brand, the Yaris reclaimed the number 1 spot it lost to the Aygo in June last year with almost double the registrations or an increase of 85% over the previous month figures. Jaguar meanwhile has also had good news with the F-Pace increasing its stride and achieving a generous registration increase over the previous month figures. With the UK market braced for the impact from the referendum and leaving the EU, next month may well be a slightly different story.

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Natalie Middleton

Natalie has worked as a fleet journalist for nearly 20 years, previously as assistant editor on the former Company Car magazine before joining Fleet World in 2006. Prior to this, she worked on a range of B2B titles, including Insurance Age and Insurance Day. Natalie edits all the Fleet World websites and newsletters, and loves to hear about any latest industry news - or gossip.

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