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European car sales analysis August 2014 – brands

October 5, 2014 by Bart Demandt Leave a Comment

The European car market has celebrated its 12th consecutive month of year-on-year growth in August, as holiday season brought car sales to a virtual halt. A volume of just over 700.000 units means a 2,5% growth on last August, but a 35% drop when compared to July.

As August car sales are particularly soft in its home market of Italy, Fiat-Chrysler sees its July sales almost cut in half the following month. However, this is no reason to panic, as it is a yearly returning phenomenon, as the whole country comes to a virtual halt for four weeks during the holidays.

After writing about Volkswagen’s dominance of the European car market just last week, the VW Group confirms its supremacy by claiming a record market share of 27,95% in August, up a full percentage point on the previous record, which lasted no longer than a single month. This strong performance is fueled mainly by the Volkswagen and Skoda brands, as Seat sales were up just 5,5% in August (compared to 12,2% Year-to-Date) and Audi even lost volume for the first time this year. [Read more…]

Chasing VW: the battle for Europe’s second place

September 19, 2014 by Bart Demandt 4 Comments

The Volkswagen Group continues to dominate the European automobile market with a record 27% market share in July 2014 thanks to increasing sales of the Skoda and Seat brands, and on a much smaller scale Porsche. Its core VW brand meanwhile has taken a large chunk of market share from its direct competitors to position itself as the clear sales leader in Europe.

In the last decade, as the European passenger car market has slumped from a record high of just over 16 million units in 2004 to a record low of 12,27 million in 2013, sales of Volkswagen have shown very little effect from this crisis. VW brand sales in 2013 were just 9.000 less than in 2004, and as a result the brand’s market share has grown from a low of 9,59% in 2004 to a record 12,57% in 2013. This means that VW has positioned itself as the clear market leader in Europe, leaving its three closest competitors Ford, Opel/Vauxhall and Renault scrambling for second place, all at least five full percentage points below the German brand.

In contrast, from 1997 until 2001, the top three brands in Europe all had market shares above 10%, and when VW was Europe’s no. 1 brand from 1998 until 2001, it never had an advantage of more than half a percentage point over its nearest competitor.

Ford, Opel/Vauxhall and Renault each have set short- to mid-term goals of either reclaiming or maintaining a second place in the European brand charts, fully aware that’s the best they could hope for, as Volkswagen is too powerful to let any of them even come near. [Read more…]

European car sales analysis July 2014 – brands

September 6, 2014 by Bart Demandt Leave a Comment

Auto sales in Europe are up 5,5% in July 2014 to 1.076.705 units, extending the streak of year-over-year gains to 11 months, and the Year-to-Date tally now stands at 7.882.231 up 5,8% on 2013.

The biggest winner in July is once again the VW Group, reaching its highest market share of the European car market ever at just over 27%, with Skoda and Volkswagen as the brands with the biggest volume increases overall, followed by Dacia. Skoda has passed Citroën and Fiat in July to move into the top-10 in 9th place.

Similarly, Dacia is closing in on Hyundai, with less than 1.500 units between them for the third time this year and the second straight month. If Dacia continues this performance and if Hyundai continues to struggle, the Romanian brand may overtake the South-Koreans sometime later this year. The impending model change of the i20 and the continuous decline of the i30 don’t help the Hyundai brand either.

Also in July, Audi has passed Peugeot for only the fifth time in the past three years (and possibly ever), despite the French enjoying great success with their Car of the Year, the 308. However, the Peugeot compact car is still outsold by a more than 3.000 units by its German premium competitor Audi A3. [Read more…]

European car sales analysis July 2014 – models

September 3, 2014 by Bart Demandt 1 Comment

The European car sales ranking for July 2014 shows the VW Golf still reigning supreme as expected, all by itself outselling the full line-up of Toyota. But below the Golf, the Fiesta has reclaimed the second place that it lost to the Clio in the past two months, although it does it by a margin of less than 400 units.

As the 208 is down again, it’s almost pushed out of the top-10, and is in danger of being overtaken as the brand’s best seller by the brand-new 308, already in 14th place. It would be the first time since at least a few decades and possibly ever that a Peugeot compact outsells the brand’s subcompact cars. And will the 308 also be able to outsell the Opel/Vauxhall Astra (11th place in July) next year, as its predecessor 307 managed to achieve in 2002, 2003 and 2004? I think it will.

Once again, the fastest gaining model in the top-10 is the Skoda Octavia, and (am I repeating myself too often here?) its platform siblings Seat Leon and Audi A3 are exploring new heights as well. Okay, I’ll add something new here: the VW Golf Sportsvan, replacing the Golf Plus, is selling like hot cakes as well, up to 52nd place with 7.432 sales, a figure it will undoubtedly improve further in the next couple of months. As a result, Volkswagen Group’s new modular MQB platform is already closing in on the 100.000 monthly units mark, with 97.198 cars sold on that platform in July. [Read more…]

European car sales analysis May 2014 – models

July 20, 2014 by Bart Demandt Leave a Comment

After exploring the European brands sales rankings for May, let’s take a look at which models are making waves this month.

Unsurprisingly, the Volkswagen Golf is still the leader of the pack, all by itself outselling full brand line-ups like Hyundai or Nissan and Infiniti combined. It even has gained the most units of all models except for the Peugeot 2008, which was still in start-up mode last year.

The 2008 has outsold its archenemy Renault Captur for the very first time ever, leading the small crossover segment, with the Opel/Vauxhall and Dacia Duster not far behind in third and fourth places, taking their distance from the former segment leader Nissan Juke, which is being updated soon.

The success of the 2008 seems to have a downside for Peugeot, as the still relatively fresh 208 subcompact hatchback is losing sales quickly. In fact, whereas the 2008 adds the most units of all models (8.990 sales), the 208 is the biggest volume loser of all models (5.010 sales). [Read more…]

European car sales analysis May 2014 – provisional

June 17, 2014 by Bart Demandt Leave a Comment

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association ACEA has published the provisional May 2014 European car sales data. Provisional because only the 32 major brands are published, and Malta sales (although minor) are not yet included. No detailed model data will be available until the first week of July.

May marks the 9th straight month of year-over-year gains for the European car market, although it’s still the second-worst May in at least a decade. Sales increased 4,5% to 1.093.448 units, setting the year-to-date total at 5.431.921, up 6,9% on the first five months of 2013.

In May, Volkswagen Group has taken the biggest chunk of the sales growth, thanks to increases at all of its core brands, but most notably Skoda (thanks to the new Octavia) and Seat (thanks to the new Leon). Skoda is knocking on the door of the brands top 10 while Seat outsold Kia and Dacia in May.

Renault-Nissan is strong again, but this month the star of the show is not Dacia but Renault itself, adding the most sales of all brands and the fastest growing brand in the top 10. Strong showings of the Clio and Captur are likely to have contributed to this success. Nissan is strong as well, slowly creeping closer to Toyota to become the number 1 Japanese brand in Europe. [Read more…]

European car sales analysis April 2014 – brands

June 4, 2014 by Bart Demandt Leave a Comment

After exploring the models ranking in April and year-to-date, lets dig a little deeper into the brands ranking and trends.

Renault-Nissan is again the big winner this month, mostly thanks to big increases of Dacia and Nissan. The French-Japanese manufacturer is followed by the Volkswagen Group, where Skoda is responsible for 10.000 of the 13.000 added sales compared to last year. And PSA Peugeot-Citroën has some good news as well, with both brands back on track to increase sales.

At Fiat-Chrysler automobiles, the Fiat brand managed its third consecutive month of year-on-year growth, thanks to the continued success of the 500 and 500L. But on a smaller scale, Maserati and Jeep were among the biggest winners of the month in percentage terms. [Read more…]

European car sales analysis April 2014 – models

June 3, 2014 by Bart Demandt Leave a Comment

European new car sales have increased 2,8% to 1.126.319 units in April, slowing down the year-to-date increase of 6,6% to 4.471.024 units for the first four months of 2014. April is the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year sales increases, but things are not all as positive as they may look: last month was still the third worst April in at least a decade.

The Volkswagen Group had yet another very successful month in the compact segment, with the Golf not only the best selling car overall as usual, but also adding more units on last year’s score than any other model in the top 15, both in April and year-to-date. But besides the Golf, the Audi A3 and Skoda Octavia both score their best April ever in the history of their respective nameplates, and both claim yet another European top-10 spot.

As a result, the VW Group has three cars in the compact segment top four, with only the Ford Focus in-between. As recently as 2006, the Opel Vauxhall Astra outsold the VW Golf in that segment, but the Golf is kicking its rival’s nuts this year with a 3:1 ratio and even the compact crossover VW Tiguan is outselling the Astra this month for the second time this year, and ever. The Astra has been around since 2009, but the Tiguan is even two years older, with just a few updates in that period.

April was also a great month for the Nissan Qashqai, as the new generation has hit showrooms all across Europe. The Qashqai is up 22,4% on last year and is set to come back into positive year-to-date territory by next month. Nissan has a great month overall, with also big gains for the Micra subcompact and the Note small MPV. [Read more…]

European car sales analysis March 2014

April 18, 2014 by Bart Demandt 2 Comments

In March 2014, European car sales increased 10,4% to 1.489.796 vehicles, bringing first quarter sales up 8,1% to 3.353.180. March marked the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year growth, which is starting to recover from the crisis that hurt the European car market in the past few years, as sales have decreased every year since 2007, losing more than 22% of its total volume.

As usual in March, the UK has a big influence on the brand rankings because of the twice-annual registration plate change, which gives UK-oriented brands Ford, Vauxhall(/Opel), Honda, Nissan and Jaguar-Land Rover a single month boost compared to brands that are relatively weak in the United Kingdom. In fact, over 31% of total European volume was registered in the UK last month, whereas it is usually Europe’s second biggest market behind Germany, at around 16 to 18% of total European sales over a full year. [Read more…]

European car sales analysis February 2014

April 8, 2014 by Bart Demandt 2 Comments

European auto sales in February 2014 are up 3,6% when compared to February 2013, slowing down the year to date increase to 5,7% vs. the first two months of last year. The Volkswagen Golf is not surprisingly still the leader by far, actually increasing its lead over the number two, the Renault Clio, passing the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo to move up from fourth in January.

Notice the return of the Fiat Panda to the Europe top-10 at 8th place, leapfrogging its sister Fiat 500, which has outsold it for the past 8 months. It is also the first month of a year-over-year increase for the Panda, after a 14-month streak of decreases, since December 2012. In fact, the 2.800 unit lead over the 500 in February puts the Panda in the lead of the minicar segment Year To Date.

Another minicar with an excellent month is the Suzuki Alto, up 90% on last February. It’s noteworthy to mention this increase is fully carried by The Netherlands, where the Alto shot up from 562 sales and 15th place in February 2013 to first place and 2.279 sales this year. As a result, over 60% of all Alto’s sold in Europe this month were registered in The Netherlands. However, since this freak event is due to pre-registration of unsold cars, expect the Alto to tumble in the Dutch and also in the European ranking in the next months, until the arrival of its replacement, the Celerio. [Read more…]