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Hennecke Fleet Consulting

FLEET MARKET - Germany

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What are the biggest fleets in Germany?

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fleet-market-overview-biggest-fleets-statistics

Hennecke Fleet Consulting offers consulting for suppliers and investors in the fleet market. 

 

In this respect we define the fleet market as the sum of all companies with a vehicle fleet in a certain territory.

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On this site read more about the fleet market in Germany: How to segment the fleet market, what is the market potential, how many fleets exist per segment and what are the biggest fleets in Germany?
 

If you interested in the fleet market (company fleets) in other countries, see here: international fleet markets.

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If you are interested in an overview over the suppliers for company fleets, find more info here:  fleet management suppliers.

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Segmentation of the German fleet market

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For the German fleet market we apply the following segmentation-criteria. This segmentation follows some official or well established private data sources and is therefore suited for precise quantitative figures. It also is necesary to analyize qualitative aspects like customer behaviour​, which varies by segment of the fleet market.​

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    Owner types:

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  • OEM's own fleets

  • Dealer's own fleets

  • Rental company fleets

  • Company fleets

  • Governmental fleets
     

  • Purchased fleet

  • Leased fleet

    Vehicle types:

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  • Passenger cars

  • Light commercial (<3.5t)

  • Trucks (>3.5t and >7.5)

  • Tractors for trailers

  • Agricultural tractors

  • Motorcycles

  • Trailers

    Fleet purpose:

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  • Benefit car fleet

  • Sales fleet

  • Service fleet

  • Delivery fleet

    Fleet size:

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  • Very small (<10)

  • Small (10-100)

  • Mid size (100-1,000)

  • Large (>1,000)

  • Superlarge (x0,000)

    Company size:

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  • Mini (<10)

  • Small (10-100)

  • Mid size (100-1,000)

  • Large (1,000-100,000)

  • Superlarge (>100,000)

  • State owned

A further differentiation of the fleet market is, whether one is looking at the total number of existing vehicles in use at a specific point in time, vs. the registration of new vehicles in the market in a certain period.

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Market potential of the German fleet market

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Total fleet market

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The fleet market in Germany, defined as the number of vehicles registred on a company or governmental entity is 10,4 mio.  (compared to 57 mio private vehicles). The total number of fleets of companies or governmental entities is 470.000.

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Number of vehicles

Fleet-marktet-Germany-numbers-by-vehicle-type


The chart shows the breakdown of the total number of vehicles existing in Germany by vehicle type:
 

  • Passenger cars: 5.2 mio

  • Light commercial vehicles (<3.5 tons): 2.7 mio

  • Trucks 3.5 - 7.5 tons: 0.2 mio

  • Trucks >7.5 tons: 0.3 mio

  • Tractors for trailers: 0.2 mio

  • Busses: 80,000

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​The total number of passenger cars and LCV in company and governmental fleets is 7.9 mio.

Looking at new vehicles per year: In Germany 2021 in total 3.6 mio vehicles were newly registred. New commercial passenger cars were 1,7 mio (besides 0,9 mio new private cars), new trucks: 290.000. 

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Source for the data above: German Kraftfahrtbundesamt.​ There you will also find more data, e.g.  about age of the fleet in Germany, the regional spread, the percentage of electric vehicles vs. combustion engines, or market shares of different manufacturers. 

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Number of vehicles - further breakdown

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For the analysis of the fleet market, a further breakdown by specific segments is required: We often use a breakdown of the total number of vehicles by fleet size and company type.

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In the following example we look at the 7.9 mio passenger cars and LCV in German fleets.  
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Fleet-market-Germany-numbers-of-cars-by-fleetsize-and-companysize

    Some findings: 

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  • Out of totaly 7.9 mio vehicles in Germany, 1.5 mio (19%) drive in very small fleets of 1-9 vehicles.

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  • Out of those 1.5 mio vehicles in very small fleets, 100,000 drive in mid-sized companies with 100-999 employees.

Note: This chart does not show the complete figures.  Do you want the complete chart with info about the shares of vehicles in the German fleet market per fleet size and company size? Contact us​

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Number of fleets

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In order to assess the market potential, you also need to know the number of fleets (= number of cutomers) per segment.

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In the example from above:  The number of 7.9 mio fleet vehicles in Germany drive in 470.000 company or governmental fleets.  
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Fleet-market-Germany-number-of-fleets.png

    Some findings: 

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  • More than 50% of the total number of fleets in Germany (> 240,000 fleets) have a size of 1-9 vehicles.

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  • Out of these 240,000 fleets, 15,000 fleets belong to companies with 100-999 employees.

Note: Again this chart does not show the complete figures. Do you want the complete chart with info about the number of fleets in the German fleet market per fleet size and company size? Contact us​

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Qualitative analysis of German fleet customers

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A last step in the analysis of the fleet market is a qualitative analysis of the company fleets per segment. In order to understnd your customers, you need to know how they manage their fleet and what challenges they face.

 

Typical questions need to be answered, per fleet segment:

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  • What is the financing strategy (leasing or purchasing)?

  • What is the fleet management strategy (inhouse or outsourced)? 

  • What are the main cost drivers for them (TCO-based)?

  • What systems and tools do they currently use?

  • What suppliers do they currently have?

  • What national specific rules are relevant (e.g. regarding taxation or insurance)?

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​A more detailed explanation about those questions  you find on this website under on the site about fleet management and on the site about the supplier market in Germany. 

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If you want to sell to fleets, in most cases it makes sense to focus on the biggest fleets within the relevant segments. Out of the total of 470.000 fleets: Which are the biggest fleets in Germany and what is the size of those fleets? 

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While comprehensive figures about this are hardly available, we give you at least some examples for the biggest fleets in a few segments:

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Biggest fleets in Germany

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  • Biggest governmental fleets: Army (+30.000 vehicles), railway (+20.000), federal states e.g. Bavaria (+10.000)

  • Biggest functional fleets: Deutsche Post (+40.000 vehicles),  Deutsche Telekom (+20.000)

  • Biggest benefit car fleets: SAP (+16.000), Siemens (+10.000)

  • Biggest rental fleets: Europcar group (70.000 vehicles), Sixt (40.000 vehicles)

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Obviously, the number of those large and very large fleets is limited. Nevertheless the are thousands of further fleets still with a size of several thousand vehicles. In general you can say that functional fleets, especially retail and construction are leading the list of the biggest fleets in this segment.

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OUR SERVICES regarding the German fleet market

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Hennecke Fleet Consulting supports suppliers and investors with our services regarding the German fleet market:

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    Market information:

  • Quantitative market overview (fleet size, number of fleets + other ) per segment

  • Qualitative market analysis (customer needs, strategy, systems in use...) per segment

  • Fleet database in order to identify concrete customers

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    Market entry consulting:

  • Product benchmarking and product development

  • Sales strategy, pricing, marketing

  • Partnering: Team up with other suppliers and bundele your strengths

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    Sales support:

  • Represent you at tradeshows, support in social media

  • Directly apporach fleet customers 

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    Investment support:

  • For (young) suppliers looking for financing: Find investors

  • For investors in the fleet ecosystem: Find targets

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CONTACT US directly to discuss your specific needs and receive a concrete service offer.

Find the biggest fleets in Germany

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