Italian True Fleets suffering in October while Peugeot is on the rise

After a massive drop in September the situation for the Italian passenger car market improved and with slightly over 161,000 registrations it “only” lagged 6.3% behind last year’s volume for October. So, while the Private Market returned to growth again (+ 4.7%), True Fleets were still down by 15.7%. After an impressive year-to-date growth rate of + 9.0% for company cars until the end of August all that’s now left only two months later is a relatively small surplus of 2.1%. Let’s see what will happen by the end of the year 2018.

We found a more spectacular outcome in another market segment. In contrast to a very stable result for the Short-Term Rental companies the registrations on Dealerships and Manufacturer almost collapsed with - 37.4% compared to October 2017. This led to a share of only 11.2% which was the lowest seen in the last 29 months (May 2016).

Brand performance
Within the top 10 brands only three were able to score increasing figures. Market leader Fiat had another month with a huge loss and although the manufacturer from Turin kept its pole position in the True Fleet Market, its market share was the third lowest ever in Dataforce recordings. Volkswagen in 2nd was also down but Peugeot in third place was remarkable. With a + 38.5% the French brand gained five positions in the ranking which was mainly thanks to their top-seller, the 3008 (+ 62.9%). It was not only leading its segment (Compact SUV) but also ranked number two overall behind the Fiat Panda and was the model with the highest absolute growth in volume over October last year. The 308 further contributed significantly to Peugeot’s success with + 70.1%.

Mercedes, Ford, BMW, Audi and Renault finished on ranks four to eight. While each of them lost volume Nissan (10th, + 9.6 %) and especially Jeep (9th, +15.9 %) performed very well with both improving by four positions. The main pillars for their positive results were the Qashqai and Leaf for Nissan and the Renegade for Jeep respectively, all improving by double- or even triple-digit growth rates.

Vehicle segment performance
Dataforce is currently differentiating twenty different vehicle segments. In October only five out of them had growing numbers: The Large Utilities (the likes of Fiat Ducato, Mercedes Sprinter etc.) and – as you may have guessed – all four different SUV subsegments. Thus, the SUV share climbed from 35.4% last year to 44.5% in October ’18. The success of this vehicle type is also visible within the brands: for seven out of the top 10 brands in October their respective number one model was a Sports Utility Vehicle. The only exceptions were Fiat, Volkswagen and Renault but for the latter two the best-selling SUVs – Tiguan and Captur – ranked already second behind the Golf and Clio respectively.

You can also observe this phenomenon for brands you might not have expected, for example Alfa Romeo (where Stelvio is No. 1), MINI (Countryman), Jaguar (E-Pace) or Lamborghini (Urus) and while it still may take some time until Aston Martin’s top seller is an SUV at least they have already announced their place on the starting grid with the introduction of the DBX at the end of 2019.

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Publication by indication of source (DATAFORCE) and author (as listed below) only

DATAFORCE – Focus on Fleets
Dataforce is the leading provider of fleet market data and automotive intelligence solutions in Europe. In addition, the company also provides detailed information on sales opportunities for the automotive industry, together with a wide portfolio of information based on primary market research and consulting services. The company is based in Frankfurt, Germany.

Christian Spahn
Dataforce Verlagsgesellschaft für Business Informationen mbH
Hamburger Allee 14
60486 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Phone: +49 69 95930-265
Fax: +49 69 95930-333
Email: christian.spahn@dataforce.de
www.dataforce.de

This release was published on openPR.