German True Fleet Market with a strong second half of the year to date

Undoubtedly the German True Fleet Market is in pretty good shape, growing for the fifth month in a row. Thanks to a 7.0% rise in November the year-to-date (YTD) rate has climbed to + 2.7% and with close to 778,000 new passenger car registrations the fleet market scored its highest volume for January-November. For the Private Market the situation is looking even brighter with a + 15.9% in November bringing YTD to a + 4.3%. The Special Channels were also on the rise (YTD + 2.0%) which helped the Total Market to achieve 3.19 million registrations, the best YTD result since 2009 when the scrappage scheme heavily influenced the German Market.

Brand performance

November True Fleet results were positive for 16 out of the Top 20 brands and we saw some very close tussles in the rankings. Behind the Top 4 (Volkswagen, Mercedes, Audi and BMW) Ford followed on rank number five a mere 47 registrations ahead of Skoda on sixth. However, it was the gap between Renault (7^th) and Opel (8^th) that was closest, just 2 registrations separated them both in November! Close battles were also seen between Citroen (14^th) and Hyundai (15^th) as well as Smart (16^th) and Mazda (17^th).

SEAT in 9^th place showed a remarkable performance. The car manufacturer from Barcelona increased its fleet registrations by 35.6% and achieved a new record in terms of market share for Germany. In contrast to the current trend the biggest contribution to the rise didn’t come from an SUV but from the Mii (+ 52.8%) and the Leon (+ 49.9%) with the latter showing as SEAT’s most important model for fleet customers.

Peugeot completed the Top 10 ranking and gained four positions, just like its affiliates from Citroen while Smart managed to top them all overtaking a total of six other brands.

Mini is big

Ranking the vehicle segments in the True Fleet Market Germany by percentage growth puts Sports Cars (+ 23.8%) and Luxury Class (+ 20.3%) in the lead within November. But combined these represent less than 1.7% of the market. In third place in the ranking however we saw a more relevant group: the Mini Cars. This group of models grew by 18.5% and with a 5.9% they reached their highest share in more than two years. Just for comparison: In the Private Market this segment accounted for 8.6% of all November 2017 registrations. This good performance also helped the Mini Cars to overtake the Mini-Vans for the current month.

In fleets, particularly the Top 4 models, Volkswagen Up (+ 16.8%), Smart Fortwo (+ 62.4%), Toyota Aygo (+ 76.6%) and Seat Mii (+ 52.8%) all significantly pushed their volumes compared to November 2016. But competitors like Skoda Citigo, Opel Adam, Hyundai i10 and Smart Forfour also showed an increasing volume in registrations, though not quite as pronounced.