Fiat Group has turned in another positive month of new vehicle sales across Europe after recording 99,358 registrations to post a 2.6 pct year-on-year rise while for the year-to-date it is up 7.0 pct.

Fiat Group turned in another month of increased sales across Europe during November, the automaker in positive territory and outperforming a falling market after recording 99,358 registrations, to post a 2.6 pct year-on-year rise whilst for the year-to-date it is up 7.0 pct.

In 2007, new passenger car registrations in Europe (EU27+EFTA) have until the end of November increased by 1.1 pct compared to the same period last year. Private demand in most of the countries in Western Europe has been dampened by consumer uncertainty fed by, amongst others, sharp rises in oil price, loss of purchasing power and regulatory changes. In November, new car registrations fell by 2.1 pct in Western Europe and soared by 12.4 pct in the new EU member states, which resulted in the overall figure being 1.1 pct lower than in November 2006. The number of working days was roughly the same as last year in the whole EU.

Western Europe’s November figures were weakened by falling registrations in Spain (–5.9 pct) and in Germany (–12.9 pct). Italy (+1 pct), the UK (+2.2 pct) and France (+7.2 pct) saw their markets grow. Most of the smaller markets also posted increases, with the exception of Austria (–2.9 pct), Ireland (–13.8 pct) and Finland (–61.7 pct). The new member states enjoyed another month of strong growth (+12.4 pct), with Lithuania (+69 pct), Romania (+27.2 pct) and Bulgaria (+21.1 pct) among the most dynamic markets.

One month before the end of the year, new car registrations in Europe have shown a cumulative (Jan-Nov) increase of 1.1 pct. Registrations in France, the UK and Italy exceeded their last year’s results by 1.7 pct, 2.5 pct and 6.6 pct, respectively. Spain (–1.9 pct) and Germany (–8.2 pct) remained on a downturn path. A decline in private demand on the German domestic market following January 2007 VAT increase is most likely to retain new registrations below 3.17 million cars, 9 pct less than in the previous year. A steady expansion in the new EU members (+14.7 pct) positively influenced the overall figures in 2007 (+1.1 pct). Apart from Hungary (–7.5 pct), the number of new cars registered in the new member states was higher than in 2006.

While Fiat Group was in positive territory (+2.6 pct) last month most of its main automotive group rivals suffered. Europe’s biggest automaker, Volkswagen, was down 7.2 pct, while PSA Peugeot-Citroën (- 2.1 pct), Ford (-2.9 pct) and GM (-5.2 pct) all gave up ground. Of its larger rivals only Renault finally stemmed a disastrous year to post an 11.3 pct gain. Below 6th placed Fiat the rest of the European top-ten had mixed results: Toyota (-6.5 pct), BMW (+16.6 pct), Daimler (-3.9 pct) and Honda (+7.8 pct).

With 99,358 units registered (EU27+EFTA) in November compared to 96,834 units for the same month a year ago the Fiat Group was up 2.6 pct ,and its saw its European market share climb from 7.7 to 7.9 pct. The Fiat brand (including Fiat Professional and Abarth) accounted for 78,917 units, and was up 4.1 pct year-on-year. The two specialist brands though had a mixed month: Lancia (9,036 units) and Alfa Romeo (-5.9) lost 0.8 and 5.9 pct year-on-year respectively. These results saw the Fiat brand raising its market share from 6.0 to 6.3 pct year-on-year, while Lancia (0.7 pct) and Alfa Romeo (0.9 pct) remained unchanged.

For the first 11 months of the year Fiat Group is up 7.0 pct year-on-year, a considerably better performance than any other member of the ‘big six’ European automakers. It mow has 1,166,439 registrations YTD compared to 1,090,502 during the same period last year and its share of the overall European new car market has climbed from 7.4 to 7.9 pct year-on-year.

The Fiat brand (including Fiat Professional and Abarth) accounts for 910,956 units of this total, up 8.3 pct, while Alfa Romeo (134,864 units) is down a fraction at 0.1 pct, and Lancia (115,261 units) is up 5.3 pct. For the first 11 months of the year the Fiat brand’s share of the market is up from 5.7 to 6.1 pct year-on-year, Alfa Romeo is unchanged on 0.9 pct, while Lancia is up from 0.7 to 0.8 pct.