German True Fleets down 4.5% in June

Continuing its one-up, one-down pattern, the German True Fleet market, following a positive May, experienced negative growth last month, Dataforce reports. With just shy of 340,000 registrations, the Total market was down 3.5% compared to June 2016 – but still positive year-to-date (+3.1%). Looking at the separate channels, Private Market registered -6.5%, True Fleets -4.5% (its third negative month of the year), while Special Channels remained virtually ex aequo.

The True Fleet manufacturers Top 10 remained relatively stable, with VW on #1 and Audi on #2. Mercedes (#3) and BMW (#4) switched places, compared with previous June – as did Skoda (#5) and Ford (#6). Opel, Renault and SEAT retained their ranking (7 to 9, respectively). Peugeot, driven mainly by sales of the 3008, jumped ten places (growing 171.2%) to conquer #10.

Lifting the veil on its in-depth insight in fuel segment changes, Dataforce also mentioned that diesel sales had declined by 9.1% in the Total German market for the first half of the year. Hardest hit is the Private market, registering almost 35,000 less diesels. Diesel declined by 5.7% in the True Fleet year-to-date figures. But perhaps most tellingly, Manufacturer registrations for the first half year show 20,000 more petrol than diesel vehicles, while the figures for the same period last year still showed 3,400 more diesels than petrol cars. “While there has been plenty of press surrounding how this drop is not yet affecting residual values, this slide will certainly become visible in the coming months and years”, Dataforce concludes.

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