Europe’s ‘Big 5’ markets saw varying true fleet performances in December 2017, with Germany, the UK and Italy declining while France and Spain both registered rises.

Europe’s ‘Big 5’ markets saw varying true fleet performances in December

The figures from Dataforce show the highest growth was seen in Spain with a rise of 6.3% in December marking a full year of increases that added up to a 12.5% uplift for 2017. Meanwhile the private market increased by 7.3% while special channels also remained in the black (+3.2%), giving an overall rise of 6.2% to almost 108,000 registrations.

In France, the true fleet market registered growth of +2.6% – its eighth consecutive month of growth – as well as recording its second-best fleet result ever for December. Special channels were up + 5.0%, compensating for a slump in the private market (‑4.5%), resulting in the total market finishing with around 193,000 registrations, down 0.5% on December 2016 by exactly 1,000 registrations.

However, in Italy, the true fleet market suffered a negative outcome for the first time since July, reporting a loss of -17.4%, although December 2016 saw the market put in a stellar volume performance. The private market was pretty stable in December with -0.9% while special channels grew by +47.4%.

In Germany, a disappointing December completed what was a good year for the true fleet market.  Although overall fleet registrations surpassed the previous year’s record value, December registrations of passenger cars were down by 4.6%, despite putting in one of the best results ever achieved in December. Special channels took a dip as well (-4.4%) while the private market (+5.8%) helped slow the downward trend of the Total Market, leaving it just in negative territory with a -1.0% fall.

Finally in the UK, December predictably followed the previous eight months with a further decline in the registration. True fleets were down by 9.9% but the private market and special channels took the heaviest hits with -15.9% and -18.6% respectively, making for a total market decline of 14.4%, finishing on 152,000 registrations for December.

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