Figures released by the European carmakers’ association ACEA confirm that the Japanese makers once again increased their share of the new passenger car market in Western Europe during 2003. According to ACEA the Japanese makers sold just under 1.8 million units in the year, a gain of 9% over 2002’s total representing a market share of 12.7% against 11.5% in the previous year.
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There were substantial share gains for Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and Honda. Mazda’s European sales were up by over 30% over the previous year helped by the successful introduction of new model ranges. Nissan was boosted by its new Micra model and Toyota benefited from better availability of diesel engines.
Market leader Volkswagen Group saw its share decline from 18.4% in 2002 to 18.2% in 2003 – the decline wholly evident in its Volkswagen brand which suffered the effects of late model cycles on key volume model ranges last year. PSA, Ford, Renault, GM, Fiat and DaimlerChrysler all lost share in 2003. Fiat Group posted the heaviest loss with sales of 1.059 million units, down 10.2% on the previous year. Fiat Group share declined alarmingly to 7.4% in 2003 against 8.2% in 2002.
BMW Group managed to achieve a marginal improvement over the year, from 4.3% to 4.4%. BMW’s European sales momentum is expected to be maintained in 2004 with the sales impact of the new 5 Series, 6 Series and X3 SUV.
The ACEA figures also showed that the Korean makers advanced further in 2003, increasing their collective market share to 3.3% from 2.7% in 2002 (a volume increase of 19.5% to 469,265 units).
Industry analysts say that the competitive landscape in Europe is set to intensify further in 2004 as the Japanese and Korean manufacturers look to add further market share in market likely to see slow growth. Estimates of market growth for Western Europe in 2004 are typically under 3%.
ACEA also reported that the overall Western European market declined by 1.3% in 2003 to 14.399 million units. The month of December showed a drop of 1.8% over the previous year. The Italian market recorded a decrease of 27.5% in December reflecting which ACEA said could be explained by the comparison with a very strong December 2002 result when the market boomed ahead of the phasing out of an incentive scheme.
ACEA’s national market figures for 2003 confirm those released earlier in the month by JD Power/LMC and published by just-auto. For further manufacturer detail across the whole European market visit the ACEA website at www.acea.be.
