Ford of Europe boosted first half sales in its 51 markets by nearly 2% to a record 1,003,700 vehicles in the first half of this year. In contrast, the blue oval’s H1 sales in the US were down 14% to 1,128,561.
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June sales in what Ford calls the ‘Euro 19’ (which includes some eastern countries) – Austria, Belgium, Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland – were down 4.9% to 140,300 units and off 1.3% to 823,400 in the first half.
But, for all 51 ‘European’ markets, sales rose 0.4% to 175,400 in June and 1.9% to crack the 1m mark at 1,003,700.
“Surpassing the 1m mark after only six months of the year is confirmation of how well our products are being received by an increasing number of customers,” said the automaker’s Europe sales chief Ingvar Sviggum. “We are also very pleased that despite a general softening of the industry and the challenging economic environment we increased our market share to 8.8% in the Euro 19 markets.”
He expects the recent arrival of the Kuga SUV (Toyota RAV4 size) and the redesigned Fiesta due soon to further boost market share.
Britain was the company’s top market in June, with 37,200 vehicles sold for a market-leading share of 15.3%. Sales in Germany increased by 16.9% to 23,900 vehicles, while France improved by 9.5% to 15,700 vehicles.
In the first six months of this year, Ford of Europe sold 823,400 vehicles in the Euro 19 markets and 12 posted increases. Britain, again, was tops, selling 235,500 vehicles for a share of 16.2%. Germany sold 118,500 vehicles, an increase of 5.8%, and France sold 80,900 vehicles, up 13.7%. Ford led the market in Spain so far this year, with a share of 10.0%, up 0.5% from 2007.
First-half sales in Russia increased 19.8% to 97,300 vehicles. Turkey improved by 3.8%, to 38,700 vehicles, while sales in Ford’s 30 ‘European direct markets’ soared 39.4% to 44,400 vehicles.
