An un-expected misfire in French True Fleet registrations for May

So it appears that the True Fleet growth engine has missed a beat in May as it dropped by 2.6%, recording its first loss in 13 months. The Total Market did finish positive (+ 0.2%) but by the slimmest of margins and this was thanks to the Private Market increase of 1.8%. Special Channels alongside True Fleets also posted a loss, though their – 0.5% could be seen as positive given the decrease in registrations came solely from the Dealership/Manufacturer (tactical) sub-channel. In terms of Total Market registrations we saw the market finish with 191,000 for May.

Brand performance

There were no changes in OEM ranking for the first 5 of the top 10 but ups, downs and one new entry for the last 5. Interestingly none of the top 5 managed a positive growth performance but each had an SUV model that did. Renault were 1^st in the ranking and their Captur was up 63.2%, Peugeot in 2^nd had the 5008 positive to the tune of 162.3%. Citroën in 3^rd had the fairly new C3 Aircross grab a 10.0% share of their registrations though it was too new to bench its growth against last May. VW in 4^th had the Tiguan grow by 18.3% and it was the brand from Wolfsburg’s best performer for the 3^rd month in a row. Mercedes finished out the top 5 with the GLC up 10.8% and like the Tiguan for VW this was also their top volume performer in May.

For the last 5 places we see the movement. Ford jumped 2 positions into 6^th with the continuing stratospheric rise of the Mondeo (+ 301.2%) with 77.5% of its registrations being the Hybrid version, the Fiesta also elevated its game to help with the rank increase. BMW remained on an even keel keeping 7^th place, while its rival from Ingolstadt, Audi, dropped 2 places to 8^th. Fiat was the new entry to the top 10 rising from 11^th into 9^th thanks mostly to the 500’s growth of 91.8%. This left Nissan in 10^th and while dropping a place it had its own success with the Leaf up 180.6% and registering a record volume in True Fleets.

True Fleet Fuel – The Alternatives

As we already mentioned the Nissan Leaf and Ford Mondeo Hybrid are currently reaching new heights. The Alternative Fuel segment as a whole is up 43.6% for May and YTD (year-to-date) almost matches this with a 43.2%. We find the usual suspects taking most places inside May’s top 10: Renault Zoe, Toyota’s Yaris, C-HR and Auris, the already mentioned Ford Mondeo (currently 2^nd!), the Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, Mercedes GLC and the Lexus NX, but we have one new entry in the top 10 that was not there last year and a further two inside the top 20. Volvo XC60 has started to make its presence felt, ranking 7^th in the current month and 10^th YTD, with that 10^th position is only 33 registrations shy of the 6^th position. The two new entries inside the YTD top 20 are the Porsche Panamera and Smart ForTwo in 15^th and 16^th respectively, both of which are also just 80 or so registrations shy of 11^th. What we are seeing is that there is certainly an appetite in fleet for Alternative Fuels and with more and more models becoming available this segment of vehicles (like SUVs) could be poised to sky rocket.