True Fleet Market Europe with double-digit growth and a new record in Italy

Another month of success for the European True Fleet Market accelerating by impressive 12.1 per cent. The year-to-date volume for the sum of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK is the highest since 2008!

France: ongoing raise; Kia shining

Nine months of continuously growth are a clear sign of an encouraging trend. In April new passenger car registrations on fleet customers increased by 10.2 per cent. The cumulative growth rate of 13.3 per cent is more than twice as high as the one for the Private Market (+ 5.2 per cent).

The French brands (market leader Renault, Peugeot, Citroen and DS in sixteenth place) all boosted their registrations compared to April 2015. The Volkswagen Golf in ninth position was the only non-French model within the top-10.

BMW (rank number five) and Kia (rank number thirteen) were shining as well. Thanks to the new generation X1 and the 2 Series Active Tourer/Grand Tourer BMW grew by 52.5 per cent. Within Kia especially the Sportage performed extraordinary well and was Kia's top seller in April. Since all other Kia models beside Sorento and Carens grew as well Kia reached its highest market share in true Fleets to date.

Germany: another double-digit increase for True Fleets

April was the second month this year with a double-digit growth rate for True Fleets in Germany. With + 11.8 per cent the value was almost twice as high as the Private Market's (+ 6.1 per cent). The top-10 brands remained unchanged in terms of positions, which is quite unusual. Skoda in sixth place (behind Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Ford) showed a remarkable performance with a surplus of 30.0 per cent compared to April 2015. This impressive result was mainly caused by the Skoda Octavia (+ 25.5 per cent) and the Skoda Superb (+ 109.7 per cent). The Superb even achieved its highest volume in True Fleet ever in Germany!).

Outside the top 10, Hyundai (rank number 11) and Volvo (rank number 13) were shining with growth rates of + 42.6 percent and + 30.2 percent respectively. The biggest improvement in total volume was achieved by Audi's all new A4, jumping on third place in the model ranking behind Volkswagen Passat and Volkswagen Golf.

Italy: A new record for April

What a great result: In April 2016 True Fleet registrations grew by remarkable 22.2 per cent. In addition this month scored the highest April volume so far for True Fleets in Italy. The same holds true for the year-to-date volume January-April.

All top 10 brands increased their registration compared to April 2015. The biggest improvements could be seen for BMW (rank number 5, + 43.4 per cent) and Nissan (rank number 7, + 57.8 per cent). With 5.1 per cent Nissan scored its best market share in True Fleets up to now. This result was primarily pushed by the SUV models Qashqai (number one in the SUV segment overall) and X-Trail.

Toyota in 11th place reached a growth rate of even 107.0 per cent and missed entering the top 10 by only 12 registrations.

Spain: a solid progress and some close battles

+ 15.8 per cent in April and a year-on-year growth of 15.1 per cent: the Spanish True Fleet Market is definitely in very good shape. And luckily this positive trend is based on several pillars. 15 out of the top 20 brands have been able to increase their fleet volume over April 2015.

Volkswagen is market leader with a share of 9.2 per cent but only slightly ahead of Renault (9.0 per cent). Behind Peugeot and Seat there was a close battle between Mercedes in sixth and BMW in seventh place, only divided by a single registration. Opel and Toyota both achieved even exactly the same volume thus sharing 10th position.

Beside the dominating SUV segment there was another group of cars with an interesting performance: The Small Car segment was going very well with a 14.9 per cent rise. The strongest player - Renault Clio - was even leading the overall model ranking and Seat Ibiza and Peugeot 208 also ranked within the top 10.

UK: True Fleet Market still growing

Obviously the upswing is continuing. After a flat January and increases of + 4.8 per cent and + 6.5 per cent in February and March the result for True Fleets in April was even better: + 8.4 per cent and more than 70,000 registrations. At the same time sales of private customers dropped by 2.5 per cent.

The top four fleet brands remained unchanged with Opel/Vauxhall in the lead followed by Ford, Volkswagen and Nissan. Mercedes (5th) and BMW (7th) performed very strongly with growth rates of 23.7 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively. Land Rover in 15th place was impressive as well with an increase of 80.4 per cent over last year's April and reaching its highest market share in True Fleets so far.