The weekly round-up of all things fleet including Volvo
‘business car’, Škoda fleet manager moves and
bump in fleet business for UK dealership.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Volvo launches ‘business cars’ for
lower RV
Automotive manufacturer Volvo has launched
specific business editions of its S60, V60 and V70 models which it
says will reduce Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax and retain higher
residual values than standard models.
The vehicles are available to order with a
lower price tag, reduced by as much as £3,000 compared to the
standard models, and are designed to have lower CO2 emissions and
fuel consumption which will reduce the annual BiK tax
liability.
Volvo said residual value setters CAP and
KeeResources have received the new models positively and the
manufacturer expects to see a higher residual value compared to the
outgoing ES model which will be reflected in the monthly
rentals. Volvo
partnered with CAP last week to launch a fully transparent
comparison tool for car pricing, including fleet.
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By GlobalDataSelwyn Cooper, Volvo national corporate
operations manager said the models were launched to better reflect
the needs of the business users.
He added: “The business community is vitally
important to us at Volvo, particularly as we have seen an increase
of nearly a third of business users funding a Volvo through our
contract hire and leasing facilities in the first six months of
this year.”
Škoda appoints regional fleet sales
manager
Czech carmaker Škoda has appointed Luke Golder
as fleet sales manager for the south and south-east of England.
Golder joins after three years at Lombard
Vehicle Management.
Fleet sales have become increasingly important
to Škoda with 22,000 registrations and 2% market share in 2011,
growing to 2.4% in 2012.
Lookers’ fleet volume down, profit
up
Lookers, the 69-site UK dealer group, has
recorded higher profits from fleet sales despite reporting a 7.5%
year-on-year drop in volumes for the first half of 2012, according
to its half-year report.
The drop in volume for Lookers outpaces their
estimate of a 1.7% drop across the UK fleet sector with the company
report attributing its higher profits to a “selective approach to
avoid very low margin fleet business”.
The group also acquired Northern Irish
contract hire and leasing company Fleet Financial in June this
year, which the report states will complement existing leasing and
rental business, broaden earnings for the group, return the
investment in the medium term and “make a significant contribution
to the profitability of the motor division”.
Total revenue from the group’s 120 franchises,
serving 32 marques, increased by 3.1% (to £1.03bn), with profit
before tax up 9.4% (to £23.3m), during a ‘record’ performance from
Looker’s motor division.
richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com &
grant.collinson@vrlfinancialnews.com
