Mixed results for German True Fleet in March
Overall, the past month of March was down for new registrations in Germany. Compared to last year, however, the Easter holidays started early and there were two working days fewer.
A detailed market channel analysis performed by Dataforce shows diverging results. The private channel performed quite well and increased 7.6%. True Fleets, on the other hand, dropped 7.1% and Special Channels lost 10.6%. The Total market decreased by around 3.4% to around 347,000 new registrations.
Results were very different when looking at the first quarter of 2018. Private sales jumped an impressive 16.0% which accounted for a share of 37.2%, the highest quarterly result since Q2/2014. True Fleets were positive with a 1.2% increase.
Brand performance
Volkswagen retains its first place, with a slightly larger market share. BMW (2nd) and Audi (3rd) swapped positions. Mercedes, Ford, Skoda, Opel and Renault completed the ranking. Opel's Insignia proved to be a hit, increasing registrations with 58.8%. The brand-new VW T-Roc has already made its way into the SUV top 10.
Below the top 10, Peugeot performed strongly, increasing 17.1% to 13th place. Fiat did well, too, growing 21.4% and jumping from 18 to 15, in large part to the successful Fiat 500 and the Fiat Ducato Mobile Home version.
Powertrains
No surprises on the powertrain front. Diesel engines continue to lose ground, petrol continues to grow. This trend was accelerated by a rising share of private registrations in which diesel engines are traditionally less popular than in fleets.
Hybrids have also gone up, increasing by 41.9% and reaching its highest absolute volume in Germany in history. The most successful hybrid carmaker was Toyota, followed by BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen.
Source: Dataforce