Fiat Group turned in another positive month of new registrations across Europe last month, with 101,354 vehicles sold it was up 7.7 pct year-on-year, outperforming a market which was up by 5.5 pct.

In October, new passenger car registrations in Europe (EU27+EFTA) were 5.5 pct higher than in the same month in 2006, thanks to one extra working day in the whole region and a general upswing in most of the main markets, reported European automotive trade body ACEA this morning. West European countries improved their results by a sound 4.8 pct and the new member states remained on a growth path (+11.8 pct). Thanks to this months’ result and an upturn during the summer, there were almost 13.6 million cars registered in Europe through October, 1.2 pct more than in the same period last year.

As regards the main markets, only Germany saw its registrations drop once more in October (-4.1 pct). Influenced by an increase in sales taxes in January 2007, new car registrations in Germany are likely to remain well below 2006 level until the end of the year. In contrast, France (+9.1 pct), Italy (+8.5 pct), the UK (+8.4 pct) and Spain (+3.4 pct) showed a surplus in their registrations. So did all the remaining EU15 countries with the exception of slightly declining Austria and Finland (-1.4 pct and -0.5 pct, respectively). Most of the new EU members posted solid growths, and the most dynamic markets were Lithuania (+56.8 pct), Slovenia (+26.4 pct) Bulgaria (+19.3 pct) and Poland (+18.2 pct).

New passenger car registrations in Europe showed an increase of 1.2 pct between January and October 2007 compared with the first ten months of 2006. A continuous upturn in the new EU members (+14.9 pct) and the October growth in the whole region positively influenced the cumulative ten-month figures. Of the largest markets, Germany (-7.6 pct) and Spain (-1.5 pct) reduced their losses and the UK (+2.5 pct), Italy (+6.9 pct) and France (+1.2 pct) strengthened their results. Apart from Hungary (-7.5 pct), the number of new cars registered in all other new member states was above last year’s level.

Fiat Group turned in another positive month of new registrations across Europe last month, with 101,354 vehicles sold (compared to 94,118 in October 2006) it was up 7.7 pct year-on-year, outperforming a total market which was up by an impressive 5.5 pct. (ACEA data counting all 27 EU member nations plus the EFTA signatories). This raised Fiat's overall European new vehicle market share from 7.5 pct in October last year to 7.7 pct last month. Fiat also gained more ground than its five biggest car manufacturing rivals in the European market: VW (+1.6 pct), PSA Peugeot-Citroën (+3.8 pct), Ford Europe (+7.2 pct), GM (+5.2 pct) and Renault (+2.5 pct) all unperformed the Italian firm. Below Fiat, Toyota was virtually unchanged (+0.3 pct), while the rest of the big-ten all had a strong month: BMW Group (+28.5 pct), Daimler (+11.7 pct) and Honda (+7.4 pct).

Splitting up the Fiat Group brands, the Fiat brand (including Fiat Professional and Abarth) was the star performer in the automotive division as usual: with 81,231 registrations last month, compared to 73,371 in October 2006, it was up 10.7 pct year-on-year, raising its European market share from 5.9 to 6.1 pct. Neither of the division's specialist brands prospered last month: Lancia saw 9,094 registrations compared to 9,191 in October last year, putting it slightly down (-1.1 pct) year-on-year, while Alfa Romeo, with 10,590 cars sold last month, as opposed to 11,195 during the same period a year ago, lost 5.4 pct year-on-year. This meant Lancia's market share remains unchanged on 0.7 pct, while Alfa Romeo's shrinks slightly from 0.9 to 0.8 pct.

After 10 months of the year the Fiat Group has now shifted 1,065,923 units. Compared to last year's January to October total of 993,669, Fiat is up 7.3 pct year-on-year, and in the process its share of YTD sales across Europe rises from 7.4 to 7.9 pct year-on-year. It's healthy 7.3 pct year-on-year rise is better than achieved by any of its rivals in Europe, BMW (+6.7 pct) comes closest. Of its bigger rivals: VW (-0.4 pct), PSA (+1.0 pct), Ford (+2.6 pct), GM (+2.5 pct) all achieve only minor fluctuations to their sales, while just above Fiat, Renault (-6.7 pct) is haemorrhaging sales this year. In fact after 10 months this year Fiat is just over 100,000 units behind Renault, while last year it was more than quarter of a million adrift at this point.

Of the Fiat Group automotive brands, Fiat (including Fiat Professional and Abarth) has racked up 831,132 registrations (vs 765,529) during the first 10 months and is up 8.8 pct year-on-year, Lancia (106,135 vs 100,364) is up 5.8 pct, while Alfa Romeo (123,862 vs 123,388) is also in positive territory, up 0.4 pct. This means that the Fiat brand raises its total European share for the first 10 months from 5.7 to 6.1 pct year-on-year, Lancia is up from 0.7 to 0.8 pct, and Alfa Romeo remains unchanged on 0.9 pct.