Fiat Auto turned in yet another excellent month of sales across Europe during October, up by 16% (92,704 vehicles registered) year-on-year, compared with an overall market gain of 3.6%, as all three of the main Fiat Auto brands posted very healthy gains. Data released this morning by European car manufacturer trade body ACEA shows that the European market (including the 23 EU member nations, plus the EFTA signatories) gained 3.6% year-on-year, with 1,209,209 new vehicles registered last month, compared to the 1,166,755 which hit the roads during the same month the previous year. The four big new car markets were all in positive territory: the biggest, Germany, was up 1.4%, while Italy gained 0.1%, France 8.4%, and Spain, 5.8%. Other new car markets to show strong year-on-year gains included Austria (+13.0%) and The Netherlands (+11.2%).

Once again, Fiat was the big winner amongst the carmakers who are exposed to the European market, up by 16.7%, a bigger gain than was recorded by any other group. Of the ‘big nine’, only Toyota was able to join Fiat in performing strongly, up 15.3%, whilst amongst the smaller volume brands Nissan made good gains, up 16.1%, with Honda also up by 13.9% and Kia climbing 11.0%. Fiat’s main market rivals mostly turned in a solid October showing: the VW Group was up 4.0%, PSA Peugeot-Citroën up 7.1%, Ford up 4.5% and GM up 5.4%, although Renault continued its losing streak as it dropped 2.0%, with DaimlerChrysler also losing ground, shedding 8.2%. Fiat saw its sales jump an excellent 16.0% year-on-year as its registrations rose from 79,906 in October 2005 to 92,704 last month, pushing the group’s European market share up from 6.8 to 7.7%.
 

The Fiat brand (including LCVs) was, as usual, the best-performing division, up 17.8% year-on-year, as it shifted 72,105 vehicles in October compared to 61,207 a year ago, raising its overall market share from 5.2 to 6.0%. Alfa Romeo also turned in another excellent month, its sales jumping 16.2% year-on-year, with 11,129 new cars registered compared to the 9,580 it sold in October 2005, in turn pushing its market share up from 0.8 to 0.9%. With the new Ypsilon model range now in the showrooms, Lancia was also in positive territory during October, up 4.3% as it sold 9,181 new vehicles compared to 8,805 in the same period last year. Fiat Auto’s ‘luxury’ brand thus held its Europe-wide market share steady at 0.8%.

For the first 10 months of the year, the Fiat Group has now sold 986,039 new vehicles, up 17.6% on last year’s 838,279 units for the same period. Overall market share is up from 6.4 to 7.5%. The Fiat brand accounts for 758,468 units for the year to the end of October (620,198 Jan-Oct 2005), while Alfa Romeo has shifted 123,044 cars for the YTD (111,134 Jan-Oct 2005) and Lancia is on 100,266 for the YTD (102,300 Jan-Oct 2005). These results mean that the Fiat brand’s market share for the first 10 months of 2006 has jumped from 4.8 to 5.8% year-on-year, while the Alfa Romeo and Lancia units remain steady on 0.9 and 0.8% respectively.