Features
21 Mar 18

Spain's bullish True Fleets to keep growing

“After an exceptional January, Spain's True Fleets pushed higher in February with an even better growth percentage. Our forecast is for a few more such months to come in 2018”, says Dataforce analyst Nils Wehner.

The Spanish True Fleet market really is the bull that keeps on charging. In February, they were up 21.8% over the same month last year, outperforming the Private market (+12.8%) and Special Channels (+9%). 

Best volume
Added up, the Total new car market in Spain grew an impressive 13.2% last month, with registrations just under 116,000 units – the best volume result since June 2017. 

“Short-Term Rentals have continued to grow their annual market share since 2015, no surprise in a country with a heavy reliance on tourism”, says Mr Wehner.  “It is also interesting to note the Dealer/Manufacturer portion has somewhat mirrored this (though from 2014 for this channel) with a possibly worrying strong feed of demo cars going into the used market in Spain”.

Cause for celebration
For the first time since December 2007, Audi took first place in the True Fleet Brand Top Ten, thanks to an impressive 89.1% growth, year on year. This was due mainly to the excellent performance of the A1, which won the top spot in Audi's model ranking, another first. February was also a good month for the Q2, Q3 and Q5. 

With Volkswagen on #2 and Seat on #3, VW Group occupied all three podium spots in the Spanish True Fleet ranking last month – surely cause for celebration back in Wolfsburg.  

Growth figures
Further down the Top Ten were Peugeot, Renault, Mercedes and BMW, with Nissan (+15.5%) on #8 and Toyota (+27.1%) on #9. The latter's impressive growth figures were down to the Prius Plus and the SUVs C-HR and RAV4. Citroën, on #10, had the third-highest growth rate of 29.6%, thanks to the Berlingo and the new C3 Aircross. 

Zooming in on the Utilities segment, which has achieved significant growth on the Spanish market, Dataforce detected a significant change in the segment's growth pattern. 

Reigning supreme
For every year since 2012, the Utilities segment of the Private channel has recorded significant year-on-year growth: +62.8% in 2013, +66.4% in 2014, +70.8% in 2015, +28.7% in 2016 and +9.1% in 2017. “While these last two years show a slowdown, no other segment can boast the same level of growth, not even SUV”, says Mr Wehner. 

But the growth of Utilities in the True Fleet channel is even more impressive: +94.8% in 2013, +59.5% in 2014, +94.2% in 2015, +62.4% in 2016 and +46.4% in 2017. “While SUV certainly has the volume lead for both Private and True Fleet channels, Utilities is currently reigning supreme in terms of growth percentage”.
 

Authored by: Frank Jacobs