Up to half of Peugeot‘s new RCZ sports coupes, or 1500 cars a year, will be sold to fleet customers, predominantly contract hire user-choosers, and act as a catalyst in overcoming “dangerous apathy” about the brand’s image.
That’s the view of fleet director Phil Robson, who said the “massive interest” in the RCZ, due to market next April, will “create a halo effect for the brand in fleet benefiting the range as a whole. I expect between 45% and 50% to be business purchases”.
He added: “People in the street don’t have strong opinions about Peugeot. They are apathetic which is a dangerous place to be. RCZ will put back on their radar. Unless they have an opinion we will always struggle.”
Robson said new models like the 3008 mini-MPV involved “challenging influencers and major fleets and being ballsy enough to put customers into rivals like Nissan‘s Qashqai alongside the 3008. It is about handling leasing companies as influencers and not purely as buyers. 3008 will do 1000 Motability sales against Qashqai’s 9000 units”.
Overall Peugeot claimed the 3008 is running 30% above anticipated sales levels with 75% of customers buying the higher specification Exclusiv model with an average price of £20,000 being paid.
Robson admitted: “We got dragged in to defining the 3008 as a crossover because we must explain what numbers mean. They are our heritage. We must overcome apathy before moving on to replacements for larger scale models like 308, which has ever-stronger RVs. Its facelift [not due for at least 18 months] will be more fundamental than the 207 was.”
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