Fiat Group suffered a difficult month for sales across Europe in March with a total 120,054 vehicles sold, a year-on-year decline of 12.1 pct, which followed the trend as the overall new vehicle market suffered a sharp decline.

Fiat Group suffered a difficult month for sales across Europe (all EU + EFTA) during March with 120,054 vehicles sold (136,543 in March 2007), a year-on-year decline of 12.1%, which came as the overall market for new vehicles suffered a sharp decline; Fiat's total European market share slipped from 7.5 to 7.3% year-on-year.

Splitting up the brands, Fiat (100,825), including the Fiat Professional and Abarth units, was down 4.6 pct; Lancia (10,609) meanwhile lost 23.3% while Alfa Romeo (7,820) was busy engaged getting production at its main factory back on track after the facility's temporary closure and was down 52.3%. The Fiat brand took a 6.1% share of the European market last month, Lancia ended with 0.6% and Alfa Romeo claimed 0.5%.

After the first quarter of 2008, Fiat Group accounts for 337,091 unit registrations across Europe (counting all EU + EFTA member states) compared to 351,704 units during the same period last year, a decline of 4.2%. The Fiat brand is on 280,556 for the first quarter, a rise of 4%, while Lancia (32,481) and Alfa Romeo (22,028), are down 13.8 and 48.6% respectively.

New passenger car registrations across Europe fell by 9.5% in March, bringing the quarterly figure down to -1.7% compared with registrations in the first three months of last year. In a context of economic uncertainty generated by the US financial crisis, car sales in Western Europe were affected most by the decline, with monthly registrations dropping by 10.2%, whereas the new Member States still posted growth in March (+3.5%) and the first quarter (+14.7%). The March results were also negatively influenced by the holiday of Easter being celebrated early this year: in most countries, the Easter holiday led to two less processing days compared to 2007. In total, over 1,650,000 new cars were registered.

Registrations in Western Europe dropped by 10.2% in March compared to the same month last year. Only the UK and Portugal saw new car demand rise by 0.5% and 5.2% respectively. The British market improved compared to January and February, remaining stable in the first quarter (-0.7%), although forecasts for GDP growth this year suggest a significant softening. The German market, despite a 14.4% decrease in March (partly due to a distortion in the February and March 2007 figures (3)), proved robust with a 2.6% upturn three months into the year. Overall, more than half of the Western European countries ended the quarter on a positive note. The French market resumed an upward trend commenced last summer (+1.3%) after a weak January when green tax measures entered into force. The situation in Spain, however, has become less buoyant with the withdrawal of the so-called Prever scrapping incentives on January 1, 2008. Demand declined by 15.3% over the first quarter and by 28.2% in March. The month was also difficult for the Italian market, which registered 18.8% fewer new cars, and 10% less for the whole quarter. Weak consumer confidence (4), which stood at its lowest in four years, the pre-elections climate and the overall economic setting contributed to the fall in Italy.

The markets in the new EU Member States remained on a growth path, with eight countries out of ten posting an increase over the first quarter of 2008. Poland registered the most new cars during that period (86,926 units or a 19.5% increase). Among the four biggest markets, Romania recorded the largest growth (+23.6% or 74,028 units). Hungary registered 42,559 new cars (+3.5%), and the Czech Republic 33,026 (+9.7%).