Features
15 Dec 17

Best YTD results ever for German True Fleets

Following the 5th monthly increase in a row (+7% in November), the German True Fleet market's year-to-date result has climbed to +2.7% and, with close to 778,000 new car registrations, has achieved the highest January-to-November figures ever, Dataforce reports. 

The Private market is doing even better (+15.9% in November, +4.3% YTD). With Special Channels also on the up (+2% YTD), the Total market hit 3.19 million registrations from January to November, the best YTD results since 2009, when a scrappage scheme provided some much-needed stimulus in the wake of the financial crisis. 
 
November True Fleet results were positive for 16 of the Top 20 brands. Ford, on 5th (behind VW, Mercedes, Audi and BMW) was just 47 registrations ahead of Skoda in November, while Renault (on 7th) only had a margin of two registrations over Opel. Further down the list, Citroën – gaining four places – edged out over Hyundai for 14th place, and Smart – overtaking six other brands – just about held off Mazda for 16th place.

SEAT Leon
SEAT (9th) showed a remarkable performance. It increased its fleet registrations by 35.6% and achieved a new record in terms of True Fleet market share in 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 SEAT’s most important model for fleet customers. Peugeot gained four positions, closing the Top 10.  

Ranking the vehicle segments in Germany's True Fleet Market by percentage growth in November puts Sports Cars (+23.8%) and Luxury Class (+20.3%) in the lead. But in absolute figures, these two segments combined represent less than 1.7% of the market. 

Mini Cars
In third place, a more relevant group: Mini Cars. This segment grew by 18.5, achieving their biggest market share in more than two years (5.9%). For comparison: in the Private market, this segment accounted for 8.6% of all registrations this November. This good performance also helped Mini Cars to overtake Mini-Vans in last month's segment ranking.

In fleets, particularly the Top 4 models VW Up (pictured, +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.

Authored by: Frank Jacobs