Fiat Auto's relentless European market recovery continued again last month with sales up by 20.2 pct, cementing its position as the fastest-growing carmaker this year. This excellent performance was powered on once again by consumer demand across Europe for the new Grande Punto model.

Data released this morning by car manufacturer body ACEA, which covers the 15 European Union member nations plus the three European Free Trade Agreement signatories, reveal that overall new vehicle registrations of 1,722,869, was up by 3.4 pct year-on-year. The market was very slightly distorted by the holiday periods which mean many countries had an extra day or two of sales. Belgium fared the best, up 25.2 pct, closest neighbour the Netherlands put on 11.2 pct, while Europe's biggest new car market Germany, was up 6.9 pct. The UK, the largest volume market during March due to the arrival in that period of a new registration plate, slipped by 1.6 pct. "The positive result, partly due to an extra working day in all countries...confirms the good start to the year," said ACEA.

The Fiat Auto brands combined (Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Light Commercial Vehicles and Maserati) sold 123,481 new vehicles last month, up 20.2 pct on March 2005's figures when the total was 102,689. This lifted Fiat's market share from a 6.2 pct in March 2005, to 7.2 pct last month. Another very strong showing, it was helped by an excellent month for the Italian market, and followed a pattern that has been replicated all year as the Fiat Grande Punto model surges into the showrooms across Western Europe. This was the car Fiat pinned its revival hopes on, and it is a strategy that has been thoroughly justified, in 2006 it is selling like no other. It helps to make the Fiat brand (including LCV sales) the big winner in the Fiat Auto portfolio, up 29.6 pct year-on-year. Last month 94,910 new Fiat-branded vehicles were sold across Western Europe, up from 73,215 in March 2005, lifting the division's market share from 4.4 to 5.5 pct.

With the Alfa 159, 159 Sportwagon and Brera model ranges all now rolling onto the European market, the Alfa Romeo brand's sales climbed by 1.1 pct with 15,345 registrations (as opposed to 15,175 in March 2005). This left their market share steady on 0.9 pct. Lancia meanwhile shed 5.8 pct after shifting 12,859 new cars (13,647 in March 2005), mainly from the Ypsilon and Musa model ranges. This resulted in their market share slipping from 0.8 to 0.7 pct year-on-year.

With the first sales quarter of the 2006 year now firmly under their belt, Fiat Auto's strategy is really starting to paying off. 318,531 new vehicles have been sold in the first three months.
 

This is up 17.8 pct on Jan-Mar 2005's total of 270,470 vehicles, lifting the carmaker's market share up from 7.1, to 8.0 pct year-on-year. Of these new vehicle sales 242,376 were Fiat branded (6.1 pct of the total market), while Alfa Romeo accounted for 39,638 (1.0 pct) and Lancia 35,372 (0.9 pct).

Fiat Auto's position as the in-form carmaker of 2006 was reconfirmed in March, its 20.2 pct rise in sales outperforming all the other major brands. In fact the only carmaker to turn in a better set of figures than Fiat Auto was the Japanese Suzuki concern which was up 25.2 pct, with sales of 24,801 cars. Taken though as it is as a single-brand, if compared directly to the Fiat brand, which was up 29.6 pct, this left the Fiat as Europe's best performer. Most of the serious carmakers also fared well last month in a rising market: The VW/Audi Group was the next of the big players in terms of sales rises, up by 10.2 pct, with BMW Group + 10 pct, DaimlerChrysler + 9.3 pct and Toyota + 6.3 pct. The Renault Group though lost 5 pct as Fiat Auto rapidly closes in on the market position of the 5th biggest carmaker in Europe. In March 2005 Renault sold 50,000 more vehicles than Fiat Auto, last month that gap was down to just 22,000 as Fiat Auto eye up their standing.

Overall for the first quarter the combined market was up by 3.4 pct. Fiat Auto are easily the strongest major performer, up 17.8 pct, with only the VW/Audi Group really having a good start to the year, up 13.6 pct, while BMW are up by 6.9 pct and DaimlerChrysler + 4.6 pct. Of the other major groupings the year has been slow thus far, Toyota fare best up by just 1.3 pct while Peugeot-Citroën PSA and GM (Opel/Vauxhall) are up just 0.3 pct. Ford are down 0.8 pct, while Renault have lost 8.9 pct.