UK True Fleet remains in a negative territory for another month

The UK slump continues with the three channels all recording negative growth for June. The total market finished with 243,000 registrations, equating to a – 4.8% in the growth stakes. Once again it was the Private Market hardest hit registering – 7.9%, followed by True Fleet with – 4.5% (coincidently the same drop as last month) with Special Channels the least negative with – 0.3%. Interesting to note was the fact that Special Channels (tactical channel of Dealership/Manufacturer & Short Term Rentals) had registered an extra 16,000 unit’s year-to-date over the same time period last year.

The True Fleet channel had its share of ups and downs with some big winners and also some OEM’s perhaps looking to keep June firmly in the rear view mirror. The biggest “Up” will probably go to VW. With a + 40.7% growth the brand managed to claim the True Fleet #1 spot for its first time ever since Dataforce UK recordings started in January 2004. However, to really give the brand its due some context is required; this is the first time since September 2006 that neither of the home brands of Ford (2^nd) or Opel/Vauxhall (5^th) held the #1 spot, with Renault being the last OEM to have succeeded in usurping the home grown manufacturers.

BMW (3^rd) was the next German brand to capitalise jumping two places followed by Mercedes (4^th) who kept the same spot as last year. Opel (5^th) is certainly one of the brands looking to put June behind them after a 45.7% drop over last June numbers and will be possibly hoping that the recent approval of PSA’s buyout can help boost July numbers. Nissan (6^th), Audi (7^th) and Toyota (8^th) all retained their positions with Peugeot (9^th) gaining one spot, while Hyundai (10^th) gained three and the second highest growth rate inside the Top 10 of + 39.5%. Outside the Top 10 a worthy mention must go to SEAT who achieved a staggering + 81.7% growth and after looking deeper was pleasing to see the volume a spread across Leon, Ateca and Alhambra with Leon taking the #1spot for the brand.

With the current negative performance from the UK marketplace we decide to take a look deeper into the tactical registrations from Special Channels. The Rental channel is a domain where both Opel (#1) and Ford (#2) are also the most dominating brands, for June these two OEM’s accounted for 44.5% of all registrations with the next nearest Fiat (#3) taking just a 6.3% slice of the Rental channel. Rounding out the Top 5 we saw Hyundai (#4) with 6.1% and VW (#5) with 6.0%. Interestingly only 99 registrations separated 3^rd to 5^th.