Martin Ward, manufacturer relationships manager, CAP, scours the globe for insider fleet intelligence

Monday

A hastily-arranged meeting with the product strategy team from Hyundai. They wanted me to go to Seoul.

I suggested meeting halfway in Frankfurt, but in the end we met in High Wycombe.

They jetted halfway round the world to Hyundai’s UK HQ, had a five-hour meeting about future product with CAP then back to Heathrow for the 12-hour flight back.

The Koreans are taking Europe very seriously and want to learn more about the leasing industry, how it works, and what they can do to make more inroads into it.

The quality of the current range of cars is good and will improve with every model that is launched.

European manufacturers know they mean business, will grow in size and will pinch a lot of their sales.

However, I couldn’t imagine even a strategy team from France popping over the Channel or sitting on a plane for half a day for a meeting – it wouldn’t happen.

Tuesday/Wednesday

Went to the Sunderland International Automotive Conference, which was mainly about the future of electric vehicles (EV).

I gave a presentation on CAP’s criteria for EVs.

One of our criteria is that any EV has to have the battery included.

If it isn’t part of the car, and owned by someone else, we can’t value it. Other presenters included some eminent scientists and experts in electric technology who understand more about the workings than many of us.

Everyone there, whether presenting or in the audience, was a piece of the jigsaw in this sector of the forthcoming explosion in EVs.

Thursday/Friday

Drove to PSA’s design centre south of Paris in a Peugeot 3008 2.0 HDi that achieved 51.3mpg on the 985-mile round trip.

This was a joint preview with two all-new Citroëns and two all-new Peugeots that will go on sale next year.

Representing the UK from the manufacturers were fleet directors Andy Wady (Citroën) and Phil Robson (Peugeot).

This was the first time PSA has held such an event with both companies in the same room at the same time, and it seemed to go extremely well.

I had a chat with Jean-Marc Gales who basically runs the whole of the PSA Group. He told me that sales in 2010 are up by 17%.

His main aim is to improve quality.

He admitted they had problems in the past but this has been improving and will continue to do so.

Getting this message over to fleets and company car drivers will be a challenge for both companies.

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