Mercedes-Benz Financial Services (MBFS), also
known as CharterWay, has doubled its vehicle financing in the UK
since 2009, as fleet and business sales have grown.
The number of units financed by MBFS in the UK
in 2011 was up by 35% on 2010, while the volume of finance has
doubled since 2009.
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Of all Mercedes-Benz cars sold in the UK in
2011, starting at the A-Class range, 49.5% were financed, as were
59.9% of smart cars, also run by Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG, a
spokesperson for the company confirmed.
The German manufacturer’s finance arm financed
one-in-three Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles sold in 2011, and
half of all Mercedes-Benz tractors. MBFS also claims that it is
able to offer finance to four out of every five of its
applicants.
The figures support the analysis of a “strong”
fleet and business market in the UK by Paul Harrop, national sales
manager at MBFS, at the
Finance & Leasing Association Convention in November
2011.
By November 2011, Mercedes-Benz had notched up
730,000 fleet registrations, with expectations that the year-end
figure will be just shy of 800,000, marginally short of the 2008
peak.
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By GlobalDataSimilarly, Citroën’s 90-dealership network of
Business Centres this week published a 40% rise in business
registrations during 2011, including a 71.4% rise in car sales.
As
automotive expert Jason Wakelam of Pricewaterhouse Coopers
(PwC) explained to Motor Finance recently: “Over the past
12 months the private sales have actually contracted, but the thing
that’s been keeping everything up is fleet sales, the corporate
market.”
While
private new car sales in the UK dropped 4.4% from 2010 to 2011,
according to the SMMT, fleet registrations rose by 4.6% and
business registrations by 1.2% according to PwC.
Alongside MBFS, Mercedes-Benz commercial
vehicles are mainly financed by Lombard, ING, HSBC and Hitachi.
richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com
