True Fleet numbers for March boosted by April’s new tax legislation

The month of March is historically a good month due the release of new registration plates but the UK auto market received some extra registrations due to the impending tax changes. With the new VED (Vehicle Excise Duty) legislation coming in to force on April 1^st figures were boosted by consumers bringing forward their purchases as they looked to capitalise on the more favourable tax option still on offer. The Total Market registered 562,000 vehicles which was a rise of 8.4% of the previous March. While the Private market showed a + 4.4% it was True Fleet which delivered the highest growth of + 12.6% only beating Special Channels by 0.2% with that segment recording a + 12.4%.

We decided to look into the major benefactors of this growth in True Fleet and how the extra volume of 19,065 units was spread in various segments.

As we looked into Fueltype it was interesting to see that petrol took the dominating share of 93% of the growth figures and 42.4% of all True Fleet registrations for March. This was especially surprising given the new VED taxation looking more likely to affect the diesel market, due to their sub 100 g/km CO₂ emissions engines previously getting into the lowest tax bracket. Alternative Fuels took the next largest share with 5.8% of the growth and 5% share of the March figures, with diesel taking the smallest share of the growth with 1.2% but still in the #1 position for March’s overall share with 52.6%.

Next came the manufacturers benefitting from the surge and there were eight that scored 1000+ volume growth in the month on month comparison:

Our final look was at the models and which cars registered a growth of 1200+ units in the month on month comparison. Ford’s New Fiesta registered an extra 2,125 units with the model making up 30.5% of all Fords registered in March. The Nissan Note managed an extra 1,964 units taking care of 20.4% of Nissan monthly volume. Citroen saw the taillights on an extra 1,572 C3’s with its newest version scoring 39.6% of the French manufacturer’s volume. Mercedes was the last of the 1200+ group and the A-Class was the model delivering a 1,276 surplus and 29.6% of monthly volume.