The UK is still dealing with negative growth in true fleet registrations, while the rest of the EU-5 has swung back into positive growth for May, according to analysis from Dataforce.

The total market managed a little over 186,000 registrations in May, but this was down 8.5% over last year. True fleet struggled with a negative 4.5%, but it was definitely the private market with a fall of 14 percentage points that was worse affected - a five-digit drop over May 2016. 

True fleet manufacturers welcomed three new entries into this month’s top-10 with growth from Asian brands. Ford took top spot and the highest growth rate inside the top-five of +9.8%, almost solely driven by the Fiesta model performance, while Vauxhall secured second place. German brands took the next three spots; VW, Mercedes and Audi followed by Nissan and seventh-placed BMW. Notably all these brands retained their places from last year rankings.

It was however the sibling rivalry of Hyundai in eighth and Kia in ninth that scored highest in the monthly growth charts. Hyundai managed +48% and Kia +14.3% moving them into the top 10 from 13th and 12th respectively. Highest volume for the OEM’s was achieved from the sister SUV’s, Hyundai with the Tucson and Kia with the Sportage but worthy mention should be made of the Kia Optima which managed an exceptional 350% growth.

The alternative fuel segment in true fleet had a prosperous month with an increase of 33.1% taking its year-to-date growth to 14.8%.

In the electric top-five models the BMW i3 was first followed by the Nissan Leaf, but it was the Tesla Model X taking third spot from the Model S, which was fourth, for the second month in a row and the Hyundai Ioniq in fifth spot which impressed most, with both of these vehicle’s not even on the market last June.


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