Leased Cars Cleaner Than Average, U.K. Group Says

The U.K. business-fleet leasing market grew 7.6% year-on-year to 1.35 million units in the second quarter, the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Assn. says.

BVRLA data shows the car portion of the business-fleet-leasing market rose 2.4% to 979,000 units, outpaced by the smaller light-commercial-vehicle segment, up 14.9% at 371,000.

Association members operate a combined fleet of about 4.8 million vehicles. They buy almost half of all new vehicles sold in the U.K.

Much of the second-quarter gains were driven by personal leasing, although its growth rates have fallen. The latest data shows the segment grew 36% year-on-year and 7% quarter-on-quarter.

Average carbon-dioxide emissions for newly registered lease cars rose 0.9% to 111.8 g/km in the second quarter from 110.8 g/km the previous quarter and were up 0.7% on the same period in 2016.

The BVRLA says the main reason for this is likely to be the increasing share of personally leased vehicles within the wider BVRLA leasing fleet. The average personal car in the fleet had emissions of 120 g/km of CO2, compared to the 111 g/km of those on contract hire.

The growth in average new-car emissions was mirrored by the wider market, where average emissions for all new-car sales rose to 121.3 g/km, up 0.7% year-on-year and the previous quarter.

Still, the newly registered BVRLA-member lease car still had average emissions 8% lower than the overall U.K. new-car market.

The proportion of diesel cars in the BVRLA fleet was static at 74.9% in the second quarter but was down 2.5% year-on-year. The latest quarter saw the proportion of new diesel sales rise slightly to 68.1% but still was down 6.5% year-on-year.

BVRLA CEO Gerry Keaney says personal leasing continues to drive overall market growth and this is helping the auto industry reach its long-term goal of reducing CO2 emissions.