ACEA, the European carmakers’ association, has issued West European new car sales figures for the first nine months of the year. They show that the market held up in September (+0.9% on last year) but that there is a cumulative decrease of 3.7%.
The ACEA figures are in line with the figures issued by LMC/JD Power in early October (and published by just-auto).
Besides the finalisation of some figures that may be provisional in LMC/JD Power’s monthly analysis, the ACEA figures provide additional manufacturer detail.
The manufacturer detail confirms the tough time that Fiat Auto is having in the West European marketplace this year. Fiat Auto’s new car sales are down by 18.2% in the first nine months – by far the biggest decline of any of the major groups. Fiat’s problems appear to be across brands and across models, but industry sources say that the Punto is faring particularly poorly, as is its relatively new Stilo model.
Most of the major groups are showing slight gains or reversals, although GM is a major loser at –13.1% and Volkswagen Group has clocked up a deficit of 6.4%. BMW ’s +19.5% is down to the introduction of the new Mini.
Several Japanese makers achieved notable sales growth in the first nine months of the year including Toyota (including Lexus ) at +14% and Honda at +16.2%.
See the figures at www.acea.be under ‘press releases’.
