The French true fleet sector rose 28.9% in August – normally the quietest month of the year – ahead of the 1 September switch to WLTP.

The Megane helped drive growth at Renault

Analysis by Richard Worrow at Dataforce finds that private registrations were up by a similar percentage to True Fleet with a +26.5% rise but the combined sub-channels of dealerships/manufacturers and rentals produced a significant 81.4% growth over August 2017.

Renault remained in the number 1 spot for the fourth month in a row, while also having its biggest growth month in true fleets since December 2015 with a 59.5% rise. Megane, Scenic, Kadjar, Captur, Talisman and Trafic all scored triple-digit growth rates.

Peugeot and Citroën took the second and third spots respectively and were the first OEMs in the top 10 to secore negative growth rates. However, both VW (fourth) and Nissan (fifth) capitalised on the market expansion with their Compact SUVs (Tiguan and Qashqai) heavily supporting the volume increase. Audi was next and was up by 44.4% but Mercedes and BMW both finished in the red.

Ford and Toyota were both on the up, with the former up by 29.9% thanks to the Fiesta, C-Max and the Mondeo hybrid, while Toyota’s model spread was even.