The British True Fleet Market finished November with the best performance in growth terms among the Big 5, reducing the gap toward 2017 from a 22.5% difference in September, and over 6.1% in October to a mere 1.3% last month. Still, with the year-to-date growth standing at ‑ 7.0% not even a super buoyant December will likely bring back the annual growth into the black.
Brand performance
In terms of brands, November was another month were VW had the edge on both Ford and Vauxhall (Opel) while BMW also overtook the duo thanks to more than 550 additional registrations for the 5 Series. Mercedes claimed rank number 4, followed by Kia that doubled fleet registrations of the Picanto (+ 138.9%), tripled them for the Niro (+ 240.3%) and even quadrupled registrations for the Stonic (+ 352%).
The next three positions went to Nissan, Audi and Toyota with the brand from Ingolstadt still struggling with WLTP homologations and thus almost 50% behind their November 2017 figures. In contrast to them, Peugeot had their complete range certified to Euro 6c or better and now capitalised on this with a 25.2% increase.
Vehicle Segments and fuel types
In November, companies were looking for a Petrol (+ 48.9%) or Hybrid (+ 71.5%) SUV, while the diesel fuelled limousines and stations wagons suffered a 37.1% dip and even petrol cars with a traditional bodystyle could only just retain their usual level of registrations. Speaking of the Petrol and Hybrid SUVs the main winners by absolute volume gain were the Mercedes GLA, the Ford Ecosport, the Vauxhall (Opel) Grandland X, BMW’s X1 and the Volkswagen T-Roc.
