NISSAN’s corporate sales team has started the New Year on a high after recording its highest ever volume of passenger car registrations in the UK in 2014.
The manufacturer registered 63,358 passenger cars during the calendar year – an increase of 13.6% on 2013 – to break all previous fleet sales performance records.
The result was the highlight of a phenomenal year for Nissan’s corporate sales team, during which it capitalised on an avalanche of exciting new product launches. The most notable new model, the all-new British-built Qashqai, enjoyed a staggeringly successful debut year, with 26,867 fleet registrations accounting for 42% of the Nissan’s passenger car fleet sales.
Meanwhile, a renewed focus on electric vehicles strengthened Nissan’s position as market leader. During 2014, the brand’s dedicated EV fleet specialists clocked up a 56% increase in sales, with 1,211 all-electric Nissan LEAFs registered by fleet customers.
Nissan enjoyed a 5.4% share of the UK fleet market in 2014 (5.1% in 2013), positioning the brand in seventh place in the fleet market.
The fleet performance also made a major contribution to Nissan’s best ever overall sales year in the UK, with over 138,000 cars and a total of 148,158 vehicles sold in the UK during 2014.
Barry Beeston, Corporate Sales Director at Nissan Motor (GB), said: “2014 was an outstanding year for Nissan’s corporate sales team, as it was for the wider Nissan brand in the UK.
“We launched five outstanding new products throughout the year to give ourselves one of the freshest and most exciting line-ups in the industry and increase our coverage of vitally important market segments, including the core c-segment.
“This created real energy around the brand and, as a result, we were able to significantly strengthen our relationships with existing fleet customers while opening doors that had never been open to us before.”
Barry added: “Our success has not all been linked to the launch of new models though. Over the course of the year we’ve made significant improvements to our customer experience by improving our nationwide network of specialist business centres, introduced an enhanced fleet website and expanded our fleet sales team to deliver greater levels of customer service.
“This great performance in 2014 gives us the perfect platform for continued success in 2015.”