By John Simpson 06 July 2011
Fleet sales stood strong during June, ploughing ahead in a month where the new car market slipped yet again.
According to the SMMT’s monthly new registrations data, the fleet market continued to outshine retail registrations, reporting a 2% jump on last June’s figures while private sales went the other way by 6.2%.
Retail’s latest decrease signifies an overall slump of 7.1% for the first half of the year and 12th consecutive monthly drop. Fleet sales ended the first half of 2011 3.4% higher.
With the Scrappage Incentive Scheme’s influence now completely out of the equation, the SMMT’s Paul Everitt didn’t seem too worried and anticipated more optimistic figures for the next six months.
“June new car registrations continued to perform in line with industry expectations with robust demand in the fleet sector and a relatively weak retail market,” he said.
“The balance of demand makes this a tough time for vehicle manufacturers and their dealer networks.
“Slow but steady economic growth in the second half of the year should see volumes increase, although the overall market is still expected to be around 1.93 million units.”
CV sales were up for the 17th month running, reporting a 12.7% improvement on June 2010, taking its rolling annual total to 287,166.
Mr Everitt said this proves confidence and commitment within the market: “Again, articulated trucks saw the most robust growth in the month and year-to-date figures for almost every sector were up significantly on 2010.”
Reign
![The fleet market continues to outshine retail registrations - [click to enlarge]](http://images.rgdcdn.co.uk/9/9/2011-07-clip_image002.gif/0/0 "The fleet market continues to outshine retail registrations - [click to enlarge]")
Just a quarter of the 48 manufacturers included in the SMMT’s round-up reported positive change on their 2011 sales in comparison to last year’s figures.
The majority of those manufacturers were prestige or highly desired brands such as Bentley, BMW and Audi however Skoda also made a cheeky appearance with a 6% increase, enhancing the brand’s reinvention in recent times.
Infiniti saw the most significant increase with sales up by nearly 200% on last year. Ssangyong’s sales however are still very much in the toilet with 10 vehicles shifted all year, marking a drop-off of 94%.
Ford’s Fiesta continued its reign as 2011’s biggest seller, racking up 8,829 and pushing its running total for the year to 51,643. The model currently sits nearly 8,000 units ahead of its nearest rival – the Focus.
CO2 emission amongst fleets were also down to an average of 138.9g/km compared to 144.2g/km this time last year.
Categories: Fleet news
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