Fiat Group rode out much of the 7.8 pct drop in new car sales across Europe during May ending the month down 4.5 pct year-on-year after accumulating 113,866 registrations and in the process raising its overall market share to 8.5 pct.

Fiat Group rode out much of the sharp 7.8 pct downturn in new car sales across Europe during May, ending the fifth month of the year down 4.5 pct year-on-year after accumulating 113,866 registrations, and in the process raising its overall market share from 8.2 to 8.5 pct, according to data which was released this morning by the European automotive manufacturer trade body ACEA.

European demand for new cars decreased in May compared to the same month of last year (-7.8 pct). This result was affected by one working day less across the whole region, as well as by a massive increase in fuel prices. Calculated over five months the market remained stable (-0.7 pct). In total, 1,334,081 new passenger cars were registered in Europe (EU27+EFTA) in May.

In Western Europe, markets contracted by 8 pct to 1,235,314 newly registered passenger vehicles. Cumulative results from January to May show a milder decrease of 1.5 pct. Looking at the major markets, France was the only one to post growth both in its monthly results (+7 pct) and in its cumulative figures (+5.2 pct). The number of new registrations in Germany was slightly lower (-6 pct) than in May 2007, although the market is on a stable path, with cumulative results 4.2 pct higher than over the same period last year. The Spanish and the Italian markets were still on a downward trend, decreasing by 24.3 pct and 17.6 pct respectively over the month. Five months into the year, they recorded 14.3 pct and 10 pct fewer registrations compared to the same period in 2007. Demand for new cars in the UK fell by a modest 3.5 pct in May, after two months of notable growth, leading to stable cumulative January – May results (-0.6 pct).

In the new EU Member States, the decline of 4.2 pct in new registrations in May contrasted with the 9.8 pct increase over the last five months. The Polish market performed better than in 2007, totalling 26,230 new car registrations. Romania saw its market decrease by 12.2 pct in May but remained the second most important market of the new EU Member States with 24,647 new registrations. Five months into the year, almost all new Member States posted growth.

Fiat Group turned in the best performance of all the major car manufacturing groups' in Europe during May, down 4.5 pct on the same month last year (counting EU27+EFTA markets). Europe's biggest carmaker, VW Group struggled, it lost 8.1 pct year-on-year. The German brand was followed in its decline by PSA Peugeot-Citroën (-7.9 pct) and Ford (-8.6 pct), making it a very bad month for the largest three groups. GM Vauxhall/Opel (-5.4 pct) and Renault (-5.7 pct) both lost further ground ahead of Fiat, while below the Italian firm came Japan's Toyota which lost a massive 21.6 pct year-on-year. Specialist German brands BMW (-4.4 pct) and Mercedes-Benz (-13.2 pct) wrapped up the top nine.

However Fiat Group, with 113,866 vehicle registrations last month, compared to 119,203 a year ago, improved its share of the European market by 0.2 pct to finish May on 8.5 pct. Splitting the Group's brands up, Fiat (including the Fiat Professional and Abarth divisions) with 91,250 units registered last month, was down 2.4 pct, but improved its market share from 6.5 to 6.8 pct year-on-year. Lancia, with 10,643 units sold in May was down 8.6 pc,t while Alfa Romeo, with 11,336 registrations of its sporty cars shed 16.3 pct.

After the first five months of the year the Fiat Group has seen a total of 566,784 registrations, putting it down 1.7 pct year-on-year, its share of all European sales year-to-date slipping very slightly from 8.3 to 8.2 pct. The Fiat brand, with 466,426 registrations, is up a strong 4.4 pct, while Lancia (54,072 registrations YTD) is down by 10.2 pct, and Alfa Romeo (43,108 registrations YTD) is down 36 pct. This all means that the Fiat brand's share of all European sales so far this year climbs from 6.4 to 6.7 pct year-on-year, while Lancia goes from 0.9 to 0.8 pct, and Alfa Romeo from 1.0 to 0.6 pct.