Renault UK’s light commercial vehicle sales to fleets rose 15.2% to 20,934 units in 2004, well ahead of the sector’s average volume lift of 6.8%.
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Partly as a result, the UK arm of the French automaker plans to expand its van service centre network from 28 to 45 sites during 2005.
In a statement Renault described the UK LCV market in 2004 as “buoyant”. Total UK LCV volume rose 8.8% while Renault boosted sales 12.1%, making the UK one of the brand’s strongest markets for its LCV line.
Overall volume of 20,934 enabled Renault to consolidate its third place position in the LCV fleet sector. The largest increases in fleet sales were in the 2.6-3.5 tonne sector with the Trafic van (a model jointly developed by Renault and GM that is built in the UK and Spain and also sold with Vauxhall, Opel and Nissan badges across Europe) up 1,701 (28%) to 7,814 and sales of the (larger) New Master up 1,568 (45%) to 5,036.
This northern spring, Renault UK will introduce robotised (clutchless semi-automatic) ‘Quickshift’ manual gearboxes across the Trafic range and hopes that the new option will further boost volume.
Renault UK secured a number of significant fleet business wins in 2004, such as a fleet of small Kangoo models for Nottingham (city) Tram Consortium and the expansion of the British Gas Renault van fleet – many of the company’s domestic gas repair technicians drive a Kangoo.
Renault also reported an increase in the number of UK fleets choosing vans from its ‘Off the Shelf’ programme which includes a Master minibus and tipper and the recently introduced Luton platform cab.
