The analysis finds that the market increased by 12.1% in April, with the year-to-date figure up by 9.3% – the highest since 2008.

In France, the sector saw nine months of continuous growth, with a figure of 10.2% for April. The cumulative growth rate of 13.3% is more than twice as high as the one for the Private Market (+ 5.2%).

The French brands (market leader Renault, Peugeot, Citroen and DS in sixteenth place) all boosted their registrations compared to April 2015. The Volkswagen Golf in ninth position was the only non-French model within the top 10.

BMW (rank number five) and Kia (rank number thirteen) put in strong performances as well. Thanks to the new generation X1 and the 2 Series Active Tourer/Grand Tourer BMW grew by 52.5%. Within Kia especially the Sportage performed extraordinary well and was Kia’s top seller in April – overall the brand reached its highest market share in true Fleets to date.

Germany saw another double-digit increase for true fleets, with an 11.8% rise for the month – almost twice as high as the private market’s figure of +6.1%. The top-10 brands remained unchanged in terms of positions. Skoda was in sixth place (behind Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Ford) and showed a remarkable performance with a surplus of 30.0% compared to April 2015, mainly helped by the Skoda Octavia (+25.5%) and the Skoda Superb (+109.7%). The Superb even achieved its highest volume in True Fleet ever in Germany!

Outside the top 10, Hyundai (rank number 11) and Volvo (rank number 13) were shining with growth rates of + 42.6% and + 30.2% respectively. The biggest improvement in total volume was achieved by Audi’s all new A4, jumping on third place in the model ranking behind Volkswagen Passat and Volkswagen Golf.

In Italy, April 2016 true fleet registrations grew by 22.2%. In addition this month scored the highest April volume so far for true fleets in Italy. The same holds true for the year-to-date volume January-April, with a 13.5% increase.

All top 10 brands increased their registration compared to April 2015. The biggest improvements could be seen for BMW (rank number 5, + 43.4%) and Nissan (rank number 7, + 57.8%). With 5.1% Nissan scored its best market share in true fleets up to now. This result was primarily pushed by the SUV models Qashqai (number one in the SUV segment overall) and X-Trail.

Toyota in 11th place reached a growth rate of even 107.0% and missed entering the top 10 by only 12 registrations.

Spain saw 15.8% growth in April and a year-on-year growth of 15.1%. Dataforce added that the positive trend is based on several pillars. A total of 15 out of the top 20 brands have been able to increase their fleet volume over April 2015.

Volkswagen is market leader with a share of 9.2% but only slightly ahead of Renault (9.0%). Behind Peugeot and Seat there was a close battle between Mercedes in sixth and BMW in seventh place, only divided by a single registration. Opel and Toyota both achieved even exactly the same volume thus sharing 10th position.

Beside the dominating SUV segment, the Small Car segment saw strong growth with a 14.9% rise. The strongest player – the Renault Clio –even lead the overall model ranking and Seat Ibiza and Peugeot 208 also ranked within the top 10.

In the UK, after a flat January and increases of +4.8% and +6.5% in February and March the result for true fleets in April was even better: + 8.4% and more than 70,000 registrations. At the same time sales of private customers dropped by 2.5%.

The top four fleet brands remained unchanged with Opel/Vauxhall in the lead followed by Ford, Volkswagen and Nissan. Mercedes (5th) and BMW (7th) performed very strongly with growth rates of 23.7% and 28.9% respectively. Land Rover in 15th place was impressive as well with an increase of 80.4% over last year’s April and reaching its highest market share in true fleets so far.