Renault boosted the number of Zoes on its Company Car In Action stand this year after huge demand for test drives in 2017.

Mark Dickens (pictured), Renault UK head of fleet sales operations and remarketing, said the main topic of conversation was electric and hybrid cars when he spoke to Fleet News.

Which models have been the most popular with fleets on your stand this year and why?

The SUV Crossover range (Captur, Kadjar and Koleos) is a keen subject, but the dominant one is Zoe. Last year we only brought one to CCIA. It was out all day, there was a waiting list to drive it; we had to make one of the team’s company cars available to test drive.

So this year we brought five -and they will do all day on a single charge.

The main conversation topic for fleets now is electric or hybrid power trains and the new R110 Zoe has a 200 mile range

What is your priority this year and why?

The first objective was to rationalise the range in the light of the move from NEDC testing to WLTP.

Any WLTP engined car is part of our new Easy Life range – launched in May - making it easy for fleets to make their choices through reducing the complexity of our offering from, for example Captur from 24 to eight versions, Clio 28 to 11, while increasing the standard specification.

For a fleet user chooser it’s easy to make a choice of spec and engine. Our ambition is for fleets to know the Easy Life range.

The second is to maintain our balanced channel approach.

Our core fleet business, Motability and direct rental sales market share should never be greater than our retail share, ensuring we are not pushing expensive channel business just to keep pace with volume.

What are your fleet sales expectations this year and longer term (including their predictions on how fuel type split is changing/might change)?

The issue with the volume question is the transition from NEDC testing to WLTP.

All manufacturers were working towards moving all NEDC stock by August 31, 2018 when this testing method ceased being used.

You’ll see higher rental volumes in the first half of the year because of the change in testing, but we will maintain the balanced in channels.

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