The new Focus  - “the best car Ford has ever built” -  will be the centre of the brand’s fleet plans this year Owen Gregory (pictured), director fleet operations said when he spoke to Fleet News at this year’s Company Car In Action.

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

We had a few themes this year.

We showed ST Line derivatives across the range; they help us to express the energy and excitement of our performance cars but with the comfort and practicality of our family cars.

We had a new Focus in its ST dress shown on the stand which had a lot of interest and our Mondeo hybrid, as we seek to raise awareness to help people understand that it’s a great real-world alternative for high mileage drivers.

We were also keen that fleets had an opportunity to try our vans, so we had Transit and Tourneo versions of the new Custom which are more car-like to drive with upgraded interiors that put us on an equal footing with the German brands.

We also used CCIA to get the message out on mental health with livery on our big Transit.

What is your priority this year?

Our priority this year is the launch of the new Focus, which is the best car we have ever built. But we aren’t forgetting the continued launch of new Fiesta, with the Active, and also the ST on user-chooser lists because the initial reception has exceeded our expectations.

What are your fleet sales expectations this year and longer term?

We are seeing some reluctance for fleets to make a decision, some are holding off.

We are keen to help customers to work through their areas of concern.

There is more interest in petrol but it tends to be more on user-chooser, perk car policies.

We are not seeing it for high mileage fleets; there is a clear recognition that diesel for most fleet users most of the time is the optimal fuel type.

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