The latest figures from Dataforce also show that in four out of the five countries the result for fleets outperformed the growth rates for the private market.

In France, March proved to be the second month in a row with double-digit growth and pushed the rate for the first quarter of 2016 to a figure of 14.3%. The private market grew by just 5.5% in the same period.

In the true fleet channel, Renault (+21.3% over March 2015) was able to expand its leadership. One out of four fleet registrations in March was a Renault (24.8% market share). The Clio was number one in March overall and the all new Kadjar (number two in the SUV ranking behind Renault Captur) and Talisman significantly contributed to the increasing registrations.

Nissan (rank number five) and BMW (seventh position) also saw strong performance and grew by 52.0% and 40.7% respectively. Fiat raised its fleet registrations by 54.2% and entered the top 10 by gaining two positions.

In Germany, the fleet market grew despite the Easter holiday this year falling in March compared to April last year. Despite this, the fleet market was able to rise by 1.8%.

Nissan jumped from rank number 15 to 10th position with an increase of 74.9%. Within Nissan the Qashqai was number one and the favoured SUV model from a non-German brand at the same time. But the biggest increase in absolute terms was achieved by the X-Trail and Pulsar.

Ford (+28.5%) also put in a strong performance. Focus and S-Max accounted for more than 90% of the growth. The Ford Focus ranked number three in the compact car segment behind Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia and sixth overall.

Italy was is the only market within the EU-5 where the growth rate for true fleets in March didn’t outperform the private market but the fleet sector was still up 8.0%.

Behind market leader Fiat, Ford jumped from seventh position (March 2015) on second place, which is the highest rank for Ford in the Italian true fleet market ever. The increase of 60.9% (and the biggest improvement in absolute terms in March) wasn’t caused by a number of models: Fiesta, Focus and C-Max all grew by more than 50% over March 15, with the Ford Mondeo up by 188%.

Within the top 10 there were noteworthy performances for Audi (rank number 3, +48.9%), BMW (rank number 5, +38.7%) and especially Smart (rank number 8, +72.5%). The Smart Fortwo and Forfour ranked on 3rd and 4th position in the Minicar segment behind Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda.

In Spain, following two very strong months with double-digit growth rates March figures for the true fleet market were more moderate but still very positive (+8.3%). Within the top 10 brands only Audi (sixth) and Seat (seventh) kept their positions compared to the ranking of March 2015. Both achieved an increase of 9.8%.

Volkswagen took over the first position (+12.9%). Volkswagen Passat was particularly high performing with a gain of 56.6%, which pushed the model into fourth position of the overall model ranking behind Nissan Qashqai, Renault Clio and Volkswagen Golf.

Volkswagen was followed by BMW (+47.9%; 1 Series and 2 Series Active Tourer both more than doubled their volumes over March last year) and Peugeot (+19.3%).

In the UK, the true fleet market saw its best monthly result ever. After a flat January and a +4.8% growth in February, March rose by 6.5% over last year.

The top three brands remained unchanged with Opel/Vauxhall in the lead followed by Ford and Volkswagen but the most impressive performances in March were recorded by BMW (rank number 7, +50.3%) and Toyota (9th, +37.7%). With a market share of 4.1%, the Japanese brand achieved the best result since September 2014.

An interesting development can be seen for the fuel type mix in the UK. With a share of 4.9% of all new passenger car registrations in true fleets, alternatively fuelled models reached a new record. Both for full electric models and hybrids the volume in March was higher than ever before. The spike may have been led by a decrease in rates for alternative-fuel car grants as of the new tax year.