Snow joke, UK exports up, new car registrations, and fleet sales look healthy. Fleet Voice

By Simon McBride 13 January 2010

Fleet Voice Column. Wednesday 13 January 2010 The weather of late has been snow joke, it has caused a lot of disruption and hit the economy hard but there has been good news in recent days from the city. UK exports, new car registrations and fleet sales are looking healthier. It has been a cold start to 2010 with the snow causing lots of travel chaos but I hope that you and your fleets have managed in these tricky conditions. The Met Office is warning of heavy snow - 10-20cm (4-8in) - in parts of south-west England and south Wales later today so fleet drivers will need to heed the travel and weather reports as this cold snap continues. But, there is plenty of good news for the industry to cheer about! November saw UK exports rise to its highest level in 13 months. According to the office for National Statistics, exports rose to £20.2bn, the most since October 2008. The car scrappage scheme has been one of the main incentives to allow the exports to rise. To coincide with the export news the SMMT has released figures for the month of December and they too make good reading. New car registrations rose in December by 38.9% to 150,936 units, however there was a note of warning as full year registrations down 6.4% to 1,994,999 units, the lowest level since 1995. Since its introduction, the scrappage scheme has accounted for over a fifth of all new car registrations and is estimated to represent 20.8% of the December market. It seems to be the Japanese makers that have taken advantage of those fleets who are in the market for new business. Mazda and Nissan have seen their products in demand from fleet managers. Mazda’s fleet chief, Peter Allibon is looking towards 2010 being a strong year for the Japanese company in the UK. His theory seems to be backed by you the fleet manager as there is demand for recently launched models as well as great anticipation for models due to be launched in the coming twelve months. Fleet managers have been enjoying the new Mazda3 thanks to the competitive deals you are getting on contract hire. Mazda should also be buoyed by the CX-7, this could be a big player in the fleet market this year as it is set to get a new diesel engine and trim line-ups. For Mazda to remain a popular choice with you the fleet manager, then you will also be looking at frugality and CO2 emissions, and the all important tax bands that they drop into. If you are in the Motability or Daily Rental end of the market, you will be pleased to know that there will be some models from Mazda available to you, but the maker has claimed, it will only take profitable business from this sector of the fleet market. Another Japanese car-maker that is selling strong at present in the fleet sector is Nissan. It has increased its market share by 0.5 per cent. This is despite pulling out of short-term cycle business. A staggering revelation has come to the fore that only Ford in the UK achieved a better year on year fleet sales performance than Nissan. Nissan completed a successful 2009 by growing its share of the fleet sales market from 3.5 to 4.0%, when the overall market fell by 20.5% (227,707 cars). The star from the Nissan camp was the Sunderland built Qashqai which saw a 161% rise in fleet sales from 9,873 to 15,925, while the Qashqai+2 rose 650% to 2,296. This is a welcome return for two of the Japanese makers and with more new models it is also a good thing for you the fleet manager. Choice is a good thing, and it can make your drivers happy, remember it is their office you are buying or leasing. The planned April 1 shake-up in Vehicle Excise Duty rates and the introduction of a ‘special’ first year VED rate that benefits low emission models, but hits cars with emissions above 161 g/km, means that the March plate change month will be crucial to determining the potential for sales growth this year. We are now in mid-January! The holidays are well and truly over. The snow may still be with some of us, but you, the fleet manager need to get your head down. Make sure you are ready to reach sound decisions when the plate change occurs so that you and your company can ride the winds of change come April 1 and the VED shake-up. Simon McBride

Categories:Fleet news , Nissan , Mazda , Fleet Voice