Substantial investments in central Europe are helping some mass-market car makers boost their total European market share, according to Automotive News Europe.
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With nine assembly and powertrain plants in central Europe, the Volkswagen group is the biggest winner. First-quarter sales data from Jato Dynamics shows the group is even more dominant there than in the west. A 29.5% share in nine central Europe countries boosted VW’s 27-country European share to 19.5%, compared with 17.1% for western Europe.
Renault, which owns Romanian car maker Dacia, took 14.9% of central European first-quarter sales. The 126,748 units were 33% of its total European sales — and increased Renault’s 27-country share to 11.1%, giving it the No. 3 position. In western Europe, Renault is No. 4 behind Ford with a 10.1% share.
Of Europe’s six largest car makers, Ford is the only one with no plants or commitments to build in central Europe. Its 4.9% share there cut its 11.7% share for western Europe to 10.5% overall.
The results show why PSA/Peugeot-Citroen is building two assembly plants in central Europe: in Slovakia and a joint-venture Czech plant with Toyota.
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In western Europe, No. 2 PSA trails VW group by 1.4%, but in 27-market Europe, PSA is behind, 19.5% to 14.2%. With 865,489 sales in the quarter, central Europe accounted for 18.7 % of total Europe volume, up from 18% in 2002, Automotive News Europe noted.
