Honda has achieved its best ever car sales performance in the UK nudging 50,000 units at the half year point. This represents a gain of 13% over the same period last year, and is equivalent to 15 months worth of Honda car sales a decade ago.

The company says the key to its statistics has been the company’s recent success in the corporate market. For the year to date, Honda has escalated fleet sales by 36% to establish itself as a regular top 10 fleet supplier.

Locally built cars at Honda’s Swindon plant have contributed towards sales, with the Civic 5 door – the company’s strongest fleet model – rising 38% year on year.

But the Accord is fast gaining ground with total Accord fleet sales now running at nearly three times the rate achieved last year. The new i-CTDi diesel models account for 40% of the saloon mix and 55% of the Tourer (estate) mix – and this despite the diesels not being introduced until Spring this year. The Tourer, incidentally, is responsible for one quarter of all Accord sales.

Other strong fleet sales performances were recorded by the Jazz (13% up), S2000 (28% up) and the Civic IMA saloon which continues to be Britain’s best selling petrol electric model.