A disappointing December completed what was a good year for Germany’s True Fleet

The German True Fleet Market was on a relatively stable upward trend for 2017 and managed to surpass the prior year’s record value. However, fleet suffered a loss in the last month of the year with registrations of passenger cars down by 4.6%, nonetheless this was still 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%.

Brand Performance
We found that half the top 10 True Fleet brands were able to resist the market’s downward movement, with some of them recording spectacular results. As BMW (2nd) eked out positive of + 1.2%, Skoda (5th) and SEAT (10th) faired a little better with rather similar growth rates of 8.0% and 7.5% respectively. Skoda could rely on its new SUVs the Kodiaq and the Karoq in addition to an increasing demand for the Citigo, while SEAT’s performance was supported by the Leon, the smaller Ibiza and the Alhambra, one of just a few models, which held up relatively well against the downswing of the van segment.

The most outstanding numbers nonetheless were achieved by the French marques, Renault in 7th (+ 43.6%) and Peugeot (9th), the latter doing some high-precision work to almost double their 2016 December registrations exactly (+ 100.5%). Furthermore, each of Peugeot’s SUVs, namely the 2008, 3008 and 5008 increased by at least triple-digit rates. Its compatriot Renault was boosted by the Clio, Captur and Megane, these represented the top 3 Renault fleet models, but in terms of growth they were all outperformed by the Scenic which increased by sound triple-digit growth figures and finishing on 2nd in the Mini-Van ranking for December. Not wanting to miss out the last of the major French brands and certainly worthy of a mention, Citroën – just outside of the top 10 – achieved a growth of 70.3%.

Compact Cars with some highlights
For December, True Fleet’s Compact Car segment declined by 6.2%, a somewhat similar result was seen for the segments overall tally. However, Compact Cars narrowly managed to surpass 2016 numbers (0.5%) in True Fleet, which is rather remarkable when compared to the slump (- 8.1%) from the Private Market.

Despite this December decrease, some of the Compact Car’s top 10 still recorded some excellent results. As already mentioned, the Renault Megane shone brightly alongside the SEAT Leon. The Mini Clubman and the Ford Focus benefitted from accelerated petrol registrations while Audi’s A3 growth was supported by all fuel types and though the rise in petrol was more pronounced for Ingolstadt’s compact car, alternative fuel types still made up one quarter of the model’s overall growth pie.

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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.

Nils Wehner
Dataforce Verlagsgesellschaft für Business Informationen mbH
Hamburger Allee 14
60486 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Telefon: +49 69 95930-295
Fax: +49 69 95930-549
E-Mail: nils.wehner@dataforce.de
www.dataforce.de

This release was published on openPR.