FN Volkswagen is one of the big players in fleet and the Golf has been one of the best-selling cars in the true fleet sector. What further opportunities exist for Volkswagen to grow?

MO’S Fleet is an integral part of our strategy at Volkswagen and we participate in all sectors of the market, including Motability, rental and true fleet, although in carefully-managed volume.

We have a 10% market share in fleet and we’re looking to develop a good individual channel strategy driving fleet sales through all corporate channels.

We are serving 80-plus vehicle fleets as well as SMEs and local businesses and the public sector channel. We’re developing a more coherent strategy around those sub-channels and developing relationships with end-users, as well as trying to optimise performance in those respective sub-channels. We’re the most desirable brand for user-choosers and the best performer in the Sewells survey.

We have a fantastic breadth of product range from the Up to the Phaeton.

FN How do you avoid becoming complacent?

MO’S There is constant evaluation and development to ensure that we are in the link to support our customers.

There is much evolution and development occurring in the marketplace around driving fleet sales and we need to ensure we are optimising our message that Volkswagen vehicles offer low CO2, low BIK and low wholelife costs.

The market has never been more competitive, but our brand is built around certainty and reliability and many fleets would rather invest their money with us, as there aren’t many marques that have developed such a consistent performance.

We always take a long-term view around recognising value. We don’t want to throw it away through short-termism. We’re content to have a consistent long-term strategy in product development.

FN Volkswagen was one of the early adopters of downsizing petrol engines and using turbocharging technology with its direct injection TSI range. Have you seen many customers re-evaluate diesel and switch to petrol?

MO’S We haven’t seen a switch toward TSI engines from TDI among fleets and there has been no drop in demand for diesel.

There are certain sectors where petrol engines will be more popular than diesel, and our advances and efficient TSI engines are ideal for those customers. But we have seen no evidence of petrol engines becoming more popular.

 

O’Shea is guarded about Volkswagen’s position in the future, despite a desire to increase fleet sales, and remains on message about the strategy that has delivered the brand’s current position where residual values are the envy of the rest of the industry and the Volkswagen name is desirable for many user-choosers.

“We have a 10% share of the fleet market, and although we seek to grow, it will not be for the sake of growth and we will try to ensure that we take a responsible approach,” he said. “It’s a strategy that will protect our RVs.”

He is well aware that Volkswagen has been a target for other volume brands to aspire to in terms of perceived quality and efficiency and comes back to the earlier mantra of delivering a consistent approach for the business from product development to sales.

“We’re not complacent and we recognise that others have improved,” said O’Shea. “If we were still trying to sell Golf V today we might have a problem, but we have moved on.”

Factfile

Company: Volkswagen
Head of fleet: Michael O’Shea
Award-winning model: Golf
2012 car fleet sales: 101,788
2013 car fleets year-to-date: 55,535 (+0.01%)