Fiat Group Automobiles turned in the best performance amongst the big carmakers represented in Europe last month, posting a unbeaten 6.3 percent year-on-year rise as the Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia brands were all firmly in positive territory.

The pan-European new car market was virtually flat year-on-year during March, the EU members plus the EFTA signatories combined, being down 0.3 pct, according to data released today by European automotive industry body ACEA. A total of 1,822,180 new passenger and light commercial vehicles hit the European roads last month compared to 1,828,356 during March 2006. The biggest new market last month was the UK - which has a registration anomaly during March - and with 449,287 new registrations it was up 3.1 pct year-on-year; meanwhile Germany with 334,592 registrations (-6.1 pct), Italy 258,873 (+2.4 pct), France 189,869 (-3.1 pct) and Spain 173,491 (+0.1 pct) helped to keep the overall balance pretty static.

Fiat Group Automobiles saw 136,171 new registrations last month, compared to 128,064 during the March 2006, a year-on-year rise of 6.3 pct. It also keeps the group steady as it recoded a 6.2 pct year-on-year rise during February. The March performance raised its total European market share to 7.5 pct, up half a percent year-on-year. Fiat in fact turned in a better performance than all its rivals: Europe's biggest player, the VW/Audi Group was up 3.3 pct, while second place PSA Peugeot-Citroen (+0.3 pct) was hardly changed. Then Ford in third was up (+1.3 pct), GM (-1.6 pct), Renault (-9.4 pct), Toyota (+6.2 pct), DaimlerChrysler (-6.3 pct) and BMW (-5.4 pct).

Splitting the Fiat Groups Automobiles brands' up, Fiat (including LCV) saw 105,442 new registrations last month, up 6.3 pct on the 99,224 units that hit the European roads during the same period of last year.
 

Lancia was the best year-on-year performer in the auto division, up 7.2 pct, with 13,810 sales last month compared to 12,887 in March 2006; while Alfa Romeo was also in positive territory, and with 16,404 units registered last month, the 'sporty' brand was up 6.3 pct compared to 15,436 cars it sold in March 2006. These sterling performances saw the Fiat brand's overall European market share climbing from 5.4 to 5.8 pct year-on-year, while Lancia was up 0.1 pct to 0.8 pct, and Alfa Romeo was up a similar amount to 0.9 pct.

After the first quarter of 2007 Fiat Group Automobiles has seen 350,900 registrations across Europe, up 6.4 pct year-on-year, compared to the 329,758 units that it achieved during the opening three months of last year. Fiat's total market share in Europe for the year-to-date has climbed to 8.3 pct from the from 7.8 pct it managed last year. The Fiat brand, with 269,039 registrations so far this year (including LCV) is up 6.3 pct year-on-year (252,994 during Jan-Mar 2006), while Alfa Romeo with 42,830 units is up 7.1 pct (39,977 during Jan-Mar 2006), and Lancia, with 37,619 units, is up 6.1 pct (35,472 during Jan-Mar 2006). These excellent performances lift Alfa Romeo's overall market share for the year-to-date by 0.1 pct year-on-year to 1.0 pct while Lancia is up from 0.8 to 0.9 pct.