Volkswagen AG has built its auto-sales lead in Eastern Europe into the strongest position of any manufacturer in the region since the end of Communism, bolstering its edge in market share over nearest rival Fiat SpA to 15.5 percent points in first-quarter 2001 from 3.6 percent points in first-quarter 2000.

The German group, ranked first in regional sales since 1996, climbed higher, while the market fell further. Overall demand, already down 16.0% in 2000, dove 13.4% to 255,696 in January-to-March 2001 from 295,122 in January-to-March 2000 for 11 countries reporting reliable statistics – Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. (Data cover new vehicles not over 3.5 tonnes gross weight.)

VW, also the biggest player in Western Europe over the past 10 years, overcame the adversity better than any big contender. Its first-quarter turnover jumped 15.8% to 73,389 in 2001 from 63,362 in 2000, hoisting its market share to 28.7% from 21.5%. (Other sales increases above 10% were limited to companies retailing under 5,000 vehicles – 17.7% by DaimlerChrysler AG with volume of 4,088 and 11.7% by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG with volume of 813.)

VW’s performance was cushioned by the relative stability of its main market, Czech Republic, down only 2.1%. The country is home to Skoda, which generated 63.1% of total turnover of the German group (also comprising Audi and SEAT plus exclusive lines Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce). Skoda, up 21.8% to 46,318 in first-quarter 2001 from 38,016 in first-quarter 2000, owed its strength partly to the success of its new small vehicle Fabia. The Czech company is expected to introduce a new model to its car range at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2001.

Skoda Fabia

Fiat, first in sales in Eastern Europe from 1993 to 1995, stayed in second place, though it endured the brunt of the market malaise. First-quarter volumes tumbled 36.0% to 33,879 in 2001 from 52,942 in 2000, while share sunk to 13.2% from 17.9%. The Italian group (including Alfa Romeo, Iveco and Lancia plus prestige brands Ferrari and Maserati) suffered especially because 76.7% of its sales were in the region’s largest country, Poland, where demand dropped 31.5%.

Historically, Fiat has been the preeminent foreign producer in the old East bloc, playing a pivotal role in establishing Poland’s car industry in the 1920s. But the Italians have not sustained an industrial presence elsewhere in the region, while VW now assembles or manufacturers vehicles in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

View profiles in store

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData

Submit

UK USA Afghanistan Åland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Côte d"Ivoire Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Holy See Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Réunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and The Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates US Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam British Virgin Islands US Virgin Islands Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Kosovo

Industry * Academia & Education Aerospace, Defense & Security Agriculture Asset Management Automotive Banking & Payments Chemicals Construction Consumer Foodservice Government, trade bodies and NGOs Health & Fitness Hospitals & Healthcare HR, Staffing & Recruitment Insurance Investment Banking Legal Services Management Consulting Marketing & Advertising Media & Publishing Medical Devices Mining Oil & Gas Packaging Pharmaceuticals Power & Utilities Private Equity Real Estate Retail Sport Technology Telecom Transportation & Logistics Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Venture Capital

Tick here to opt out of curated industry news, reports, and event updates from Just Auto.

Submit and download

Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Fiat risks falling into third place in regional sales, behind Renault SA, which has been empowered by its acquisition of SC Automobile Dacia SA of Romania in September 1999. The French group, an indeterminate force in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, upped sales 7.3% to 31,753 in January-to-March 2001 from 29,592 in January-to-March 2000, cutting the gap with Fiat 90.9% to 2,126 from 23,350.

After plans to modernise its outdated products were publicised in late 1999, Dacia lost tens of thousands of potential customers in Romania, who postponed buying available domestic vehicles to wait for improved offerings. But sales have begun to recover, following the launch in October 2000 of SupeRNova, an upgrade of Dacia’s Nova hatchback. First-quarter turnover of Dacia increased 34.7% to 11,983 in 2001 from 8,899 in 2000, the biggest percent rise of a major mark. Dacia may enjoy an even brighter future, as it expects to launch a new model (code-named X90) as early as 2003 with a base price of Euro5,000.

Fiat, Renault and VW alone sold over 25,000 in first-quarter 2001 – together corralling 54.4% of demand. After them were PSA Peugeot Citroen (24,591), Daewoo Group (23,225), General Motors Corp (16,879), Ford Motor Co (9,664), Suzuki Motor Corp (8,592), Toyota Motor Corp (6,820) and Hyundai Group (5,752). No others eclipsed 5,000.

The major player hit hardest by market turbulence has been Daewoo. Its performance in Eastern Europe once seemed immune to its fight against bankruptcy in Korea, and the company looked ready to rout VW over much of 1998 and 1999.

But, after seven-straight years of astonishing conquest sales in the former Communist bloc through 1999, Daewoo now seems to be surrendering gains as fast as it achieved them. Its first-quarter volume plunged 46.7% in 2001 from 2000, and market share recoiled to 9.1% from 15.0%, the biggest backslide of any auto group.

As concerns about the company’s future intensified last year, consumer confidence in Daewoo started to wither across Eastern Europe, especially in Poland, where the automaker has its biggest factories in the region.

Uncertainty over Daewoo complicates the competitive landscape.

If GM buys the Korean company, its market share in Eastern Europe would rise to 15.7% from 6.6% with sales of 40,104, based on results from first-quarter 2001. But the US automaker owns 20.0% of Fiat, which in turn holds 5.6% of GM. So a tightened Fiat-GM alliance with Daewoo, representing a combined 28.9% of sales in Eastern Europe, could face monopoly concerns in key markets like Poland, where Daewoo, Fiat and GM each run major plants. (The favourable impact on GM’s market share is underestimated here, as calculations capture Daewoo at its nadir.)

But potential suitors for Daewoo have been wary of absorbing the full palette of factories (many under-utilised), so the automaker’s creditors may break apart the company to offer different chunks to separate bidders. Under a scenario that has been contemplated, GM could acquire the Korean operations, while Hyundai could buy Daewoo’s foreign plants, including sites in Eastern Europe. (In February 2001, though, Hyundai officially denied interest in these divisions.)

Among countries, Poland remained dominant, despite the drop in its volume to 102,156 in 2001 from 149,187 in 2000. It still captured a remarkable 40.0% of regional sales, and it was the ninth-largest market for vehicles in all of Europe (behind Belgium).

Romania, down 28.1% in 2000, turned around dramatically, following the recovery of Dacia, which represented 64.0% of demand there. In the first quarter, the market expanded 23.8% to 18,614 in 2001 from 15,034 in 2000, the third-highest percent increase in the region, behind 38.3% in Croatia and 31.2% in Slovakia.

Slovenia, the most developed economy in the old East bloc, still boasted the best record in per-capita sales of new autos, but its first-quarter turnover retreated 20.1% to 16,197 in 2001 from 20,274 in 2000.

In sales per 1,000 people in January-to-March 2001, Slovenia had 8.5 units. This compares with 3.9 in Croatia, 3.8 in Czech Republic, 3.7 in Hungary, 2.9 in Slovakia, 2.6 in Poland, 2.4 in Estonia, 0.8 in Romania, 0.7 in Latvia, 0.4 in Lithuania and 0.3 in Bulgaria.

Sign up for our daily news round-up!

Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights.

Sign up