We’ve done a small-scale trial with a couple of vehicles and the feedback was very positive. We’re confident that this large-scale trial will be similarly successful.

What’s been interesting for us is that when you talk to some of the large corporates and look at the make-up of their fleet, we’ve found that 48% of their commercial vehicles do less than 100 miles a day.

That’s why we’re really excited about the e-NV200 because the research we’ve done has time and again shown there are clear opportunities for this vehicle to be very successful.

FN: Nissan has spoken about its need to change the balance of its fleet sales, with more true fleet sales compared to its presence in rental and Motability. How is that progressing?

BB: One of the focus areas is channel mix; overall volume share is great, but obviously channel mix is very
important.

However, we’ve never really been exposed to rental because six or seven years ago we took the view to do very little short-cycle business.

Last year, we did around 8,000 units out of a total of 60,000, which is very small volume for us, but we are very proactive in Motability. 

We see it as a great benefit, because we see the re-sale of those vehicles back into our dealer network, so repatriation of those vehicles is very strong and dealer profitability on those units is very strong.

We have a strategic plan to continue in Motability; not to grow it, but to maintain it at its current level.

For rental, we’ve taken a step back again this year. Last year, as I said, it was 8,000 units, this year the plan at the start of the year was 3,000 units, so it will be an even lower volume.

FN: How have the dealer network and your business centre programme developed and how will that help your growth aspirations?

BB: The dealer network has risen to just over 200 now and our bespoke business centres total 75.

There are two areas of focus from myself with regard to the strategy with our business centre dealers.

The first is engagement with their local businesses and we know there are lots of small and medium enterprises that those business centres want a relationship with.