They Wanted Fewer Fleet Sales, and They Got It

Replay the last couple of years and you’ll hear a chorus of automaker pledging their allegiance to sustainable business practices. Streamlined operations, pared-down lineups and build configurations, reduced incentives, and a newfound preference for retail sales over the volume-at-all-costs approach. No single company touted this more than Nissan, though it was hardly alone.

The coronavirus pandemic, in some cases, sped up the need to find firmer financial footing, even if incentivization became the name of the game in order to move any car or truck. One thing’s for sure: fleets, especially rental fleets, sure weren’t interested.

Data from Cox Automotive shows that, even as retail sales rebounded following the lifting of lockdown orders, fleets orders remained radically depressed.

Year over year, fleet sales in May fell 83.2 percent, Cox reports, compared to a retail drop of just 16 percent. In terms of actual units, that comes out to 52,203 vehicles sold to fleets versus 311,202 sold the same month last year.

As executive analyst Michelle Krebs noted, the slow ramp-up of production and the need to replenish starving dealerships means vastly reduced (and less profitable) fleet sales are of a lesser concern. “If there is ever a good time for bad fleet, it’s now,” Krebs remarked.

While overall fleet sales in May were a shadow of its former self, sales to rental agencies appeared on the side of a milk carton. With agencies like Hertz drowning in debt, cancelling fleet buys, and seeking bankruptcy protection, it’s no shock to learn that rental sales fell 91.3 percent, year over year, last month.

Seeing the greatest volume loss from vanished fleet sales in May were rental lot denizens Nissan and Fiat Chrysler, Cox data shows.

[Image: Nissan]