Fiat Auto's pan-European sales were virtually unchanged year-on-year last month, the resurgent carmaker rounding out the year with a distinctly solid performance. Trade body ACEA yesterday released figures which revealed that Fiat Auto (including the Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and LCV brands combined) declared sales of 64,608 new vehicles last month, just a single unit down on December 2004's total of 64,609 units in a geographical area that included the European Union's fifteen member nations plus the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) signatories.

Overall, December sales were down in every EU market except the UK (+8.7 pct), Portugal (+3.7 pct) and Denmark (+0.9 pct). Germany - which is Europe's biggest new car market - saw 256,873 new vehicles registered (down by 8.8 pct) while Italy - Fiat's strategically important home market - dropped by 6.3 pct. Other big fallers included France (-1.4 pct) and Spain (-0.4 pct), while Holland lost almost a third of its volume (-30.4 pct) last month.

Again this shrinking backdrop, Fiat Auto saw its overall share of the European new car market rising from 6.2 pct in Dec 2004, to 6.4 pct last month. Fiat branded vehicles sales (including LCV) were up by 3.6 pct as 49,765 units were shifted last month as opposed to 48,029 in Dec 2004. This performance, driven forward by the marketplace success of the new Grande Punto, allowed the Fiat brand to improve its slice of the action from 4.6 pct to 4.9 pct.
 

Last week Fiat Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne announced at the New Dehli Auto Expo, during the revealing of first concrete details concerning Fiat Auto's new strategic tie-up with India's Tata Motors, that orders for the 'compact' Grande Punto had now topped the 100,000 mark, meaning that Fiat can head into forward 2006 in much more robust shape than they started the year.

The 'sporty' Alfa Romeo brand trimmed its year-long falling sales last month, steadied by a gradually increasing demand for its highly-acclaimed new Alfa 159 sedan, which last week, was awarded the prestigious Euro NCAP 5-star safety rating. Alfa Romeo sold 7,950 cars across Europe last month, as opposed to 8,483 in Dec 2004, to hold its total market share steady at 0.8 pct. Lancia - who are currently overly reliant on its home market - suffered as Italy fell, down 14.4 pct after registering 6,709 new cars (from 7,840 in Dec 2004). This meant the total market share for Fiat's 'luxury' brand slipped very slightly from 0.8 pct to 0.7 pct year-on-year.

In total Fiat Auto sold 949,075 new vehicles across Europe last year, down 10.2 pct on 2004, when 1,056,879 units were shifted. Their year total share (12 months combined) was 6.5 pct (from 7.3 pct in 2004). Last year Lancia sold 118,152 new cars, up 2.4 pct year-on-year (a 0.8 total market share) while Alfa Romeo saw sales coming in at 127,615 units, down by 16.9 pct (0.9 pct of the market) year-on-year.