True fleet registrations bring mixed performance for ‘Big 5’

By / 6 years ago / News / No Comments

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.

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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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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.