The fleet new car registration figures for 2012 showed marginal growth, although there were plenty of movements beneath the headline figures. Paul Barker reports.
The 2012 new car market was the biggest since 2008, with the overall figure for new cars registered rising 5.3% to break back through the two million mark at 2,044,609.
Within that, fleet registrations are still dominant, rising to a 52.5% share courtesy of 0.6% growth on 2011’s fleet result, an increase of 6375 cars. Retail showed a far greater recovery, shooting up by 12.9% to add more than 100,000 cars to the figures, according to the data released to BusinessCar by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
“Overall it was better than we expected, with strong retail growth,” Paul Everitt, the outgoing chief executive of the SMMT, explains to BusinessCar. “People that had been buying new cars regularly before found themselves driving cars that were five, six or seven years old and got into the market, along with people that had come through the austerity measures and still had a job, plus there aren’t too many places to put your money at the moment.”
Everitt rejected the idea that self-registration has played any significant role in the rise. Various manufacturers and industry chiefs have, over the past few months, raised concerns at the growing number of registrations being made by manufacturers looking to shift increasing amounts of cars being allocated to the UK as other European markets struggle. “I understand the proposition,” says Everitt. “But no one can tell you what proportion of the market that is, and all the dealers say others are doing it but they don’t. I’d imagine it’s rather less than the noise being created. If you look at 2012, the increase in private registrations was constant throughout the year. There were no big spikes and each month was up by 10-12%, which feels like it’s not random as there’s a level of consistency.” Everitt did, though, admit some degree of self-registration will have been happening “at the margins”.
Looking at the chart of the top 30 fleet manufacturers, Ford grabbed the number one spot back from Vauxhall, partially due to the latter’s move out of the less profitable business it previously engaged in. Vauxhall ended 2011 in front of its arch rival by 1416 registrations, but a drop of 18,809 during 2012 while Ford rose by nearly 3000 has seen a substantial lead emerge for the Blue Oval. Ford’s Focus and Fiesta were again the two most popular fleet cars in 2012, with the Vauxhall Astra once more in third, ahead of its little brother Corsa, which bumped the VW Golf down a place to fifth. Vauxhall’s reduction in fast-churn business is obvious by the big falls for the Insignia, Zafira and Meriva.
Volkswagen consolidated in third place in the table, although it was down 6.4%, with the rest of the top eight unchanged from 2011, all recording growth of between 2.1-7.8%. But the new order of things is obvious at the base of the top 10 with huge rises in fleet registrations for the fast-growing and much-improved Korean brands Hyundai and Kia. Both enter the top 10 at the expense of Toyota, which dropped a place to 11, and the plunging Renault, which more than halved its fleet registrations in 2012 to drop from ninth to 18th in the top 20 chart.
Hyundai in particular enjoyed strong fleet growth, with its overall figure up 18.1% compared with fleet growth of 24.8%, while Honda was another brand enjoying stronger corporate sales. Its overall share rose 7.2%, but in fleet it was up 19.9% as a result of the new Civic giving the firm a very competitive low-emission fleet offering in the lower-medium sector.
Other brands that enjoyed growth in excess of 20% in a market that was barely above level included three around the fringes of the top 20. Fiat, Land Rover and Chevrolet all had a positive 2012, the latter two in particular off the back of new product aimed at the business car market.
In contrast, Mazda was a company heading in the opposite direction, plunging out of the top 20 with an 84.6% drop in fleet sales that will hopefully be turned around by the new 6 joining the CX-5 launched last year, and debuting the firm’s new SkyActiv technology that showcases Mazda’s focus on CO2 reduction.
At the bottom of the top 30, defunct Saab and wilting Subaru disappear from the table, replaced by the sibling Chrysler and Jeep brands now under Fiat’s control and in the middle of a large-scale product renewal.
Mini had a slightly odd year, with the hatchback model at the core of the range dropping by 27.0%, while the Countryman, the firm’s most practical and fleet-orientated model, grew sales by 26.7%. The fleet appetite for fashionable small cars is alive and well though, by the looks of the Citroen DS3’s leap into the top 50 courtesy of a 66.2% rise in sales, and Fiat’s 500, which had a resurgent 2012, increasing sales by 43.7%.
In a similar vein, the Nissan Juke was the highest new entrant into the top 50 fleet models, making number 24 after more than doubling its registrations into the sector last year, while the new Toyota Yaris made big strides and found itself back in the top 50, along with the other entrants such as the new Peugeot 208, Hyundai ix35 and Honda Civic. They replaced the Hyundai i20, Renault Scenic and Clio, Seat Ibiza, Skoda Fabia and Toyota Auris.
The market share for diesel cars rose slightly last year, after passing 50% for the first time in 2011. It was up from 50.6% to 50.8%, but Everitt doesn’t predict it going much further. “It would be hard to think it would grow significantly from there, although you may see further change when the Government removes the 3% penalty for company car tax,” he comments. “But I feel it’s at about the level where we’ll see marginal further growth, especially looking at the trends with a strong interest in the city car segment where clearly a downsized petrol engine is an attractive proposition.”
Alternative fuels were also on the rise from an admittedly very low base. A 9.4% increase equated to an extra 2385 cars, and the market share went up by 0.1 percentage points to 1.4%. “It was always going to be, and continues to be, a long-term trend,” says Everitt. “We won’t see a sudden huge increase but we will see consistent levels of growth in that market over the next decade.”
Looking ahead, the SMMT isn’t predicting much of a change during 2013. “We’re looking at the level of demand being sustained. We don’t see any significant growth or reduction in any area,” predicts Everitt. “The pessimistic thought is that it will be flat with some positive upscale potential – the level of fleet and retail registrations is relatively low – and if we do see greater consumer confidence then there’s every chance we’ll see a strong market this year and relatively stronger in 2014.”
