Sales of Volkswagen’s Golf were up 32.1% year on year last month in a European new car market down 13.1% year-to-date.
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UK analysts JATO Dynamics said the much publicised introduction of scrappage schemes in many European markets was now beginning to have a positive effect where the incentives have had time to translate into sales.
“The German market is now an astonishing 39.7% up on May 2008 – a 20.3% improvement over last months figures. France is similarly benefiting from an improved sales performance in May with registrations up 11.8%, a figure which compares favourably to April when the French market sat 7.1% down on the previous year,” the firm said in its monthly report.
“If Germany provides a template for the other markets where scrappage schemes have been introduced, we may be at the very beginning of a period of recovery in Europe. It’s far too early to know what the sustained effects of the incentives will be, but at a time when the industry needs to see some rays of hope, it’s encouraging to witness some improvement.”
Model Performance
With the exception of the all-dominant Golf, the market is still seeing small cars benefit most from the incentive schemes and tough overall economic conditions. The Fiesta continued to perform strongly (up 56.0% in May) and the Fiat Punto, Panda and the Volkswagen Polo all increased sales in May compared to the same month last year.
In 2007, JATO said, there were three medium sized ‘C’ segment vehicles in the chart and two upper medium ‘D’ segment cars, including the BMW 3 series and Volkswagen Passat. Today, upper medium cars have lost significant market share to smaller models, and most recently it is the scrappage schemes that have been driving that trend.
Brand Performance
Volkswagen was again Europe’s top-selling car brand in May, up 9.3% over last year but down 2.0% year-to-date. Ford was second while Opel/Vauxhall regained third from Fiat. Peugeot was fifth.
National Trends
Germany’s new car market continued to defy the global downturn, posting both a monthly improvement of 39.7% and year-to-date improvement of 22.8%. Poland was the only other European market to be up both in May and year-to-date, by 4.5% and 2.1% respectively. Other markets up year on year in May were Austria (4.8%), France (11.8%), Greece (5.1%) and Slovakia (23.7%).
“It is likely that some other European markets will begin to see improvements in new car sales once the scrappage incentives begin to have an effect,” JATO said.
Top 10 Models
Make & Model | May_09 | May_08 | % Change May | May YtD_09 | May YtD_08 | % Change YtD |
VOLKSWAGEN GOLF | 52,838 | 40,006 | +32.1% | 224,699 | 209,111 | +7.5% |
FORD FIESTA | 39,955 | 25,610 | +56.0% | 199,546 | 150,891 | +32.2% |
PEUGEOT 207 | 34,318 | 38,588 | -11.1% | 157,070 | 204,494 | -23.2% |
OPEL/VAUXHALL CORSA | 31,547 | 34,539 | -8.7% | 147,460 | 175,136 | -15.8% |
FIAT PUNTO | 30,771 | 27,324 | +12.6% | 138,220 | 148,109 | -6.7% |
FIAT PANDA | 28,111 | 20,386 | +37.9% | 130,028 | 101,383 | +28.3% |
OPEL/VAUXHALL ASTRA | 27,635 | 28,909 | -4.4% | 109,397 | 160,963 | -32.0% |
FORD FOCUS | 26,851 | 36,236 | -25.9% | 129,470 | 177,064 | -26.9% |
VOLKSWAGEN POLO | 26,453 | 26,003 | +1.7% | 133,431 | 125,984 | +5.9% |
RENAULT CLIO | 24,423 | 30,739 | -20.5% | 112,217 | 163,198 | -31.2% |
Top 10 Brands
Make | May_09 | May_08 | % Change May | May YtD_09 | May YtD_08 | % Change YtD |
VOLKSWAGEN | 150,934 | 138,117 | +9.3% | 676,403 | 690,229 | -2.0% |
FORD | 111,204 | 111,675 | -0.4% | 539,678 | 572,811 | -5.8% |
OPEL/VAUXHALL | 98,801 | 107,815 | -8.4% | 449,394 | 551,881 | -18.6% |
FIAT | 93,361 | 90,018 | +3.7% | 441,814 | 461,069 | -4.2% |
PEUGEOT | 89,294 | 95,022 | -6.0% | 402,771 | 486,207 | -17.2% |
RENAULT | 86,370 | 103,482 | -16.5% | 408,132 | 520,319 | -21.6% |
CITROEN | 76,167 | 78,803 | -3.3% | 349,404 | 401,605 | -13.0% |
58,572 | 63,029 | -7.1% | 297,747 | 360,932 | -17.5% | |
AUDI | 53,967 | 59,208 | -8.9% | 263,953 | 282,802 | -6.7% |
BMW | 53,335 | 63,015 | -15.4% | 229,470 | 305,297 | -24.8% |
Sales by Market
Country | May_09 | May_08 | % Change May | May YtD_09 | May YtD_08 | % Change YtD |
29,732 | 28,364 | +4.8% | 129,926 | 133,955 | -3.0% | |
37,976 | 48,441 | -21.6% | 229,469 | 280,008 | -18.0% | |
1,702 | 1,985 | -14.3% | 7,501 | 9,692 | -22.6% | |
14,130 | 14,946 | -5.5% | 68,739 | 76,519 | -10.2% | |
7,545 | 14,616 | -48.4% | 41,274 | 70,083 | -41.1% | |
875 | 2,699 | -67.6% | 4,743 | 12,935 | -63.3% | |
7,222 | 14,218 | -49.2% | 44,066 | 75,942 | -42.0% | |
206,247 | 184,463 | +11.8% | 896,178 | 909,142 | -1.4% | |
384,550 | 275,219 | +39.7% | 1,632,205 | 1,328,968 | +22.8% | |
134,858 | 179,272 | -24.8% | 748,691 | 1,038,289 | -27.9% | |
25,976 | 24,714 | +5.1% | 89,341 | 131,818 | -32.2% | |
4,581 | 13,187 | -65.3% | 33,668 | 67,384 | -50.0% | |
186 | 1,206 | -84.6% | 550 | 5,150 | -89.3% | |
5,121 | 10,133 | -49.5% | 42,118 | 116,107 | -63.7% | |
189,506 | 207,166 | -8.5% | 921,301 | 1,082,945 | -14.9% | |
430 | 1,851 | -76.8% | 2,491 | 10,091 | -75.3% | |
698 | 2,133 | -67.3% | 3,423 | 11,505 | -70.2% | |
4,479 | 5,093 | -12.1% | 20,365 | 25,002 | -18.5% | |
7,421 | 10,217 | -27.4% | 34,166 |
51,895
-34.2%
27,335
26,157
+4.5%
144,037
141,138
+2.1%
11,813
19,754
-40.2%
55,787
93,414
-40.3%
9,184
7,427
+23.7%
34,620
35,781
-3.2%
4,778
6,291
-24.1%
24,266
32,820
-26.1%
71,092
116,131
-38.8%
336,317
587,222
-42.7%
18,215
26,251
-30.6%
80,401
113,925
-29.4%
24,666
26,928
-8.4%
108,327
122,052
-11.2%
The
30,950
45,528
-32.0%
185,551
250,924
-26.1%
Grand Total
1,261,268
1,314,390
-4.0%
5,919,521
6,814,706
-13.1%
* denotes estimated volumes for May 2009
