Despite September’s new plates UK True Fleet remains in a slump

Keeping in mind that March and September are by far the most important months in the British Market (representing around 34%-36% of the yearly totals) the results for this month were expected with a very high anticipation. Unfortunately the figures show the continuing downturn of the True Fleet market in the UK. Back in May the fleet market was still flat in comparison to a very strong January-May period 2016. Since then the situation has changed for the worse with a growing YTD loss. A – 9.6% in September brings the YTD decline down further, leaving it standing at – 4.3%.

While achieving 426,000 registrations, the Total Market in September was down by – 9.3% and the outcome for Private Market was only slightly better (or less dramatic) with – 8.8%.

VW and Mercedes overtake Ford

In contrast to last month there were some significant changes inside the Top 10 ranking. Volkswagen was really strong and their volume increased by + 22.6% helping the brand to take the lead from Vauxhall/Opel, who incidentally had held the #1 position for the March and September figures since September 2014. Mercedes ranked 3^rd achieving a growth of + 3.1% and their market share of 10.0% is in fact the highest ever for the German brand, with the models A Class, GLC and GLA performing remarkably well for the OEM. While the overall Compact Car segment dropped by – 6.3%, the A Class grew by + 33.7% and ranked #2 in September.

The GLA and GLC are positioned a bit further down in the SUV segment but managed to massively improve their ranking. The GLA (+ 56.7%) jumped from 18^th into 9^th position; the GLC (ranked #12) improved by a huge 89.8% gaining no less than twelve positions.

Tucson, i10 and Ionic gaining ground for Hyundai

Behind the Top-3 Ford took the 4^th place followed by Audi, Nissan, BMW and Hyundai. The Korean brand achieved an impressive growth of + 23.5% which was mainly fuelled by the SUV Tucson, the Mini i10 (second in its class behind the Vauxhall Viva*) and the all new Ioniq. Up till now the vast majority of the Ioniq in fleets are Hybrids (a full electric and a Plug-In Hybrid are offered as well) and they are doing pretty well. Within the Hybrid ranking the Ioniq can be found in 7^th position (year-to-date) behind Mitsubishi Outlander, BMW 3 Series, Toyota CH-R, Mercedes C Class, Toyota Yaris and Toyota Prius.

Seat and Suzuki shining

While Toyota and Kia complete the Top 10 brands, two more manufacturers outside this group are worth mentioning: Seat (ranked #12) increased its fleet volume by + 55.6% compared to September 2016 and Suzuki in 19^th position more than doubled their figures (+ 139.1%) thus achieving an all-time high in terms of market share for the British True Fleet Market.

*_{The “Vauxhall Viva” is known as the “Opel Karl” for mainland Europe}