Fleet Market Europe still positive with 3.1% growth in October

EU- 5 True Fleet remains positive following a challenging month, the + 3.1% figures continue to help the year-to-date growth rate which stands at + 7.4%. Italy, Spain and the UK all recorded improvements to October 2015 figures with Italy once again the leader in growth for the month.

France
With France perhaps suffering a slight hangover from the Paris Motor Show the True Fleet Market recorded its 2nd month of negative growth for 2016. While not as big as July’s drop of -1.3% October was still a negative month with a fall -0.7%. The market overall saw a drop in all but one of the key channels. Private, True Fleets and Dealership/Manufacturer all showed negative figures with the exception being the Rentals (Short Term) Market which posted a 13.4% gain for October.

The True Fleet Market did however produce some great results for both Korean brands inside the Top 20. Kia moved into 12th position with a 33.1% growth followed by Hyundai jumping a couple of places into 16th showing a 39.9% increase.

SUVs continue to dominate vehicle segment ranking YTD, with both the small and compact car segments following closely behind. However with the forthcoming release of the new Peugeot 3008 the SUV looks poised to take the #1 positon for 2016.

On a model level there was also some worthwhile mentions for October and surprisingly these came from three different vehicle segments. Within the Opel model range the Astra jumped from 5th to 1st in the ranking with a 370% increase, the VW Touran went from 6th to 4th in the VW ranking with a 390% increase but these were topped by an outstanding performance of the Toyota Rav4 recording a jump of 657% moving it from 9th to 2nd within Toyota ranking.

Germany
October was the second month in 2016 with a drop in True Fleet registrations but the decline of -2.1 % is no reason to worry since this October had two working days less than last year’s. In addition the True Fleets share of the commercial segment was the highest so far this year. This was due in part to the declining share from Short Term Rental registration, which showed a drop of -14.4% when compared with October 2015 data.

There were several brands which achieved an increase in volume over last year. Nissan generated another strong result with + 69.5% earning them 10th in the ranking. Opel remained in 7th position but showed an impressive performance with + 18.1% and their highest market share since August 2013. The Astra represented an especially significant share of this growth jumping to 3rd position within the Compact Car segment (behind Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia) claiming its best market share in the segment in more than four years (May 2012). Interestingly almost 9 out of 10 Astra fleet customers opt for the Estate version Sports Tourer.

Another interesting result could be seen in the Small Car segment where the Ford Fiesta recorded an all-time high market share and for the first time since April 2015 took the lead within the segment.

Italy
The Italian market momentum continues un-abated and again Italy remains the leader of the EU-5 pack in terms of True Fleet growth. The top 5 brands remain the same with Fiat in 1st place. VW however generated a 46.2% surge moving them into 2nd place at the expense of Mercedes and Audi which both dropped a place while BMW remained in the 5th spot.

Private Market registrations took a slight tumble with a -4.3% for October and generating the 2nd negative performance for 2016. YTD though remains a healthy 14.1% over 2015 and the market is highly likely to breach the million registrations mark a full month earlier than last year.

Inside the Private Market top 10 there were some remarkable individual results from the manufacturers. Toyota managed a 22.5% increase and both Ford and Hyundai recording 9.0% and 9.8% respectively. The SUV segment in True Fleet also produced some standout rank increases, VW Tiguan jumped for 17th position to 4th, Nissan X-Trail from 28th to 11th but BMW stole the show with the X1 moving from 27th to 5th more than quadrupling registrations when compared to October 2015.

Within Special Channels the Short Term Rental segment also looks set to have it best year since 2008 and could possibly have it best year since Italian Dataforce statistics started in 2004. While undoubtedly the rental car companies will end 2016 on high perhaps others might also share the good fortune from the channel.

Spain
With 10 months of political uncertainty over and Spain finally installing a new government the automotive market has seemingly weathered the storm. The True Fleet Market continues to grow and with October’s 7.8% increase helping to push the YTD to 13.5% the outlook continues to mirror the countries climate and remain sunny.

Within the Top 20 brands for True Fleet Mercedes, Opel and Kia all climbed 4 places in the October ranking. Mercedes from 8th to 4th, Opel from 9th to 5th with Kia scoring the biggest growth rate of 44.1% moving them from 17th to 13th. Opel also entered the Top 10 on a model level with the Insignia posting 43.6% increase and Corsa recording 78.9%.

The alternative fuel segment is also continuing to grow and with an 18.8% increase YTD the future looks to be somewhat greener. Manufacturers seem to be announcing new EV/Hybrid vehicles being added to their future line ups on an almost daily basis and it possibly comes as no surprise to see Toyota Motor Company dominating the Top 10 with 6 places (4 from Toyota & 2 from Lexus). As more manufacturers enter this space we expect the competition to become a little less one sided.

UK
For a third time in a row the UK shows a growth for True Fleets and a loss for the Private Market. The surplus of 0.7% in October keeps the YTD growth rate for True Fleets at + 2.7%.

The well-established battle between the two market leaders Opel/Vauxhall and Ford goes on. In the current month Ford was slightly ahead again with a market share of 12.1% vs. 11.6% for Opel/Vauxhall. Beside the Ford Fiesta the small SUV Ford Ecosport was the next largest contributor to the good result for the brand while the new entry Ford Edge is also generating some additional volume.

In general the SUV segment is performing exceptionally well. It’s not only the strongest vehicle segment in True Fleet since March 2015 but even achieved an all-time high in terms of market share in October (31.5%)! The Kia Sportage and Nissan Qashqai ranked at four and five respectively in the True Fleet model ranking and with Opel Mokka, Ford Kuga and Hyundai Tucson also appearing there are now 5 SUVs within that Top-15.

The increasing importance of SUV models is also visible by looking on the registration volume per make. Not only for Kia (Sportage) and Nissan (Qashqai) is an SUV the strongest model within the brand the same now also applies for Hyundai (Tucson), Volvo (XC60) and Renault (Kadjar).

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.

Dataforce Verlagsgesellschaft für Business Informationen mbH
Michael Gergen
phone: +49 69 95930-231
fax: +49 69 95930-333
email: michael.gergen@dataforce.de
www.dataforce.de

This release was published on openPR.