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SEAT storms fleet tables

SEAT storms fleet tables as the Spanish brand, underpinned by VW Group tech, heads for greater penetration of fleet sales in the UK, says head of fleet Peter McDonald
Peter McDonald SEAT head of fleet
Peter McDonald: confident in SEAT's fleet growth potential

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15 February 2018

IF you want a safe bet to increase fleet leasing volume, then SEAT is the brand.

It’s on a run.

In 2017 SEAT was the fastest growing OEM in top 20 fleet. And in January the brand continued its upward trajectory.

“Fleet is a growing sector of the brand’s expansion,” confirmed Peter McDonald, head of fleet at SEAT.

He points out that in 2017 the brand was up 20% and fleet was up 30%. “Even better, true fleet is up 54%.”

Macdonald says that SEAT is growing for tangible reasons, too.

“Familiarity with the brand is growing. For example, Ateca has become the most searched term on the What Car? website supplanting Golf and Qashqai, thanks in part to our sponsorship of TV shows.

“There’s no doubt that the new products from SEAT are transformational and bring us in from the fleet wilderness. Most fleets want to have breadth; and at one stage all we had was Leon. So SEAT wasn’t there in the past.

“But now we have Leon, Ateca, Arona and new Ibiza. We’ll grow again when we get our A+ SUV.

“People migrating into SUVs has been convenient for us. At the moment I would rather have more SUVs coming down the line than anything else!”

So the breadth of the product offering is certainly helping the brand’s fleet penetration.

However, it’s not just product that’s doing it for SEAT in the fleet market.

McDonald says that cars are known for other factors.

Reliability is a key one.

Enabling cars with technology, such as autonomous braking which lowers insurance ratings which in turn filters through to whole life costs; and Alexa voice control.

Just as importantly SEAT has been successful in overcoming the user chooser test drive with an innovative four day test period which includes insurance.

“I have great confidence for 2018. We’ll continue to grow and Arona will come into its own this year.

“We are now looking to overtake Hyundai in the fleet top 10,” Peter explained to us at the end of 2017. Well, that target has already been reached.

SEAT has now climbed into the top-10 rankings for true fleet sales, overtaking close competitors including Hyundai, Peugeot and Nissan.

The SEAT trajectory continues.

new SEAT Arona
New SEAT Arona: key product in SEAT fleet expansion

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