Ford of Europe has said that strong Fiesta sales have helped it to a share of 10.1% in September in its 19 European main markets – the best share for any month for Ford of Europe since September 2001.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
However, Ford sounded a not of caution on the underlying fragility of demand in Europe and said that here is still a need for government intervention in Europe to help bolster the market until demand reaches a more sustainable level.
Ford sold 51,400 new Ford Fiesta cars in September – the best September for Fiesta since 1994.
Ford said that it increased its year-over-year monthly sales volume n Europe for the fourth consecutive month. Ford of Europe sold 152,600 new vehicles in its 19 main markets in September, up 12.3% on last year (market up 2.9%).
“Traditionally we expect Ford to have a good month in September given the surge of new car sales in the UK due to the registration plate change, but September 2009 has surpassed expectations,” said Ingvar Sviggum, Ford of Europe’s Vice-President for Marketing, Sales and Service.
“Our continuing success in gaining market share despite the difficult economic situation shows that customers are willing to place their faith in Ford because we are providing them with the exciting and innovative new vehicles that they want to buy. This is particularly true of the new Ford Fiesta, which achieved its highest September sales volume since 1994.”
“Ford has now gained nine months of year-over year monthly sales share improvement, and month-on-month volume increases for the last four months. But market share and volume success are only valuable if they are achieved through high quality sales that generate good revenue, and we certainly saw that in September with retail sales accounting for 60 per cent of Ford passenger car sales.
“However, we remain concerned about the continuing fragility of the underlying market. With the sudden ending of some scrappage schemes and the more-controlled phasing out of others, the industry faces an uncertain future in terms of market demand as 2010 approaches. It is clear that there is still a need for government intervention in Europe to help bolster the market until demand reaches a more sustainable level,” said Mr. Sviggum.
In the first nine months of the year Ford succeeded in increasing its share by 0.5 percentage points to 9.2%, the best year-to-date September share for Ford in its main 19 European markets since 1999. Share was up in 17 out of the 19 main markets.
Ford of Europe’s three top-selling vehicles (19 main markets) were the Fiesta (51,400), Focus (32,100), and Mondeo (13,300).
Ford said that the Fiesta was Europe’s ‘second if not best-selling car’, an achievement which it said ‘external sources are expected to confirm later this month’.
