WOMEN are increasingly influencing the company car market. And carmakers are having to react to female buying power.

It is suggested that up to 80% of company vehicle choices made today could be influenced by women – even though they make up just 13% of the UK’s fleet drivers.

The RAC Report on Motoring 2004 has suggested that eight out of 10 company cars will have been chosen by or with the help of a female. Manufacturers are now cottoning on to this statistic and are taking women’s views seriously in the design process. One company leading the way is Volvo, which is displaying its first concept car developed by an all-female team at London’s Business Design Centre in Islington.

In recent years, females have also increasingly begun opting for vehicles at the top end of choice lists (Fleet NewsNet, August 17). A study by Godfrey Davis Contract Hire earlier this year, which polled 1,300 fleet drivers, showed that women are choosing more powerful, better-equipped and more expensive cars then men.

Almost half of the women polled (42%) said their current car had a larger engine than their previous one.

The survey also showed that women were more likely to opt for a sports car or coupe.