July’s positive fleet sales balance out poor private performance
Fleet sales have managed to edge extra ground yet again as figures for July report an increase of 2.1%.
Data from the SMMT indicates that fleet registrations are up by 3.3% during 2011 with 613,320 vehicles sold in comparison to 593,891 this time last year.
This pushes fleet’s market share over the halfway line with 52.8%, leaving 42.1% to private sales and the remaining 5.1% to business sales.
Fleet has gradually stepped up its game by around 10% since the start of 2010 whereas the private market has slipped month after month for just over a year.
Sluggish
New car registrations clocked up 131,634 units, a decrease of 3.5% for July. As it stands, private sales are down 17.3% on last year’s performance.
This reflected the impact of sluggish economic growth and subdued consumer confidence said SMMT Chief Executive Paul Everitt: “Robust demand in the fleet sector helped to bolster weaker private demand.”
The number of registrations up until the end of July was 1,161,272, but Mr Everitt still believes the industry can hit the 1.9 million target.
“While the coming months remain challenging, performance in the second half of 2011 is expected to keep the market on course to reach around 1.93 million units,” he added.
It had to come to an end at some point; van sales ended 17 months of rises in July, dipping by less than 1% despite still performing 20% better than this time last year.
Mr Everitt said this suggested a more uncertain period for the economy.
“Truck figures rose by 27.5%, the tenth successive monthly rise and while industry remains cautious, expectations for the remainder of 2011 are optimistic, with van and truck figures looking set to reach 300,000 units by year-end,” he added.
Marking its 35th birthday earlier this week, the Ford Fiesta (pictured) remains the year’s biggest selling model, racking up nearly 7,000 sales in July.
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