For fleets, Company Car in Action was the first opportunity to drive the long-awaited new XC90, and head of business sales Selwyn Cooper told Fleet News that demand for test drives had been high.

Fleet News: What are your expectations for the rest of 2015?

Selwyn Cooper: At a brand level, Volvo are keeping pace with the market this year, up 5.7%. In fleet, the whole market is up 9%, while Volvo is up 12%. 

The big story for us this year is our engines, the D4 engine has really fuelled our growth. That's now available across the majority of the range, and means low BIK in powerful, economical vehicles. 

In real terms, the growth we've seen to date this year doesn't include XC90. We were winding down sales of the old model last year, and deliveries are only just beginning for the new model now.  We're expecting about 4,500 units across all channels this year, with fleet just under half. 

The plug-in hybrid model doesn't arrive until later this year, so the balance will shift back to business after the launch of that model, towards the 70% point.

FN: Are you introducing, or have you recently introduced, any new initiatives for fleets?

SC: We're continuing the roll out of our business sales programme, aimed at giving the same high level of service to all our business customers. Last year, we launched our national Business Centre, with a team of 15, managing the relationship between customers and our sales team. It's made a massive difference to the ability of our customers to speak to Volvo as a brand, even if their normal contact isn't available.

It also means our field team can be more responsive; we can request demonstrators while in a meeting with a customer, and that customer will receive email confirmation before our guy has even left the premises.

FN: What new fleet models are you due to launch this year?

SC: The big news for us going forward is XC90. Deliveries have begun, dealers now have their demonstrators in place. It's a very different car to it's predecessor. 

The 49g/km twin engine plug-in hybrid model will be great for us. Within business sales, just over 50% of the orders we're taking for the XC90 at the moment are this model. It offers low BIK and great economy with no compromises. It's a prestige car with strong power output, and the writing down allowances help. 

We've learnt a lot from the V60 plug-in hybrid about the technology, and how to communicate that to customers. Generally speaking, electrification is not so much of a mystery in the business market anymore.

It's such a key model for us, and supply will ramp up until the end of the year. We've been lucky that CCIA coincides with us taking delivery of the vehicles, and with fleets wanting to demo vehicles for 2-3 days, this gives us the opportunity to get lots of people into the cars. 

We've ensured that we have product people with the cars to demonstrate new features; it's something we've done before with plug-in hybrid and Polestar, but it allows the drivers to explore the cars features throughout their drive; its the closest you'll get to road conditions here.

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