Fiat Group recorded 75,871 new vehicle registrations across Europe during November, putting it 23.8 pct down year-on-year; however with the overall market dropping by 25.8 pct Fiat was able to raise its market share from 7.9 to 8.1 pct.

New passenger car registrations in Europe (counting the 27 EU member nations plus the EFTA signatories) fell by 25.8 pct in November compared to the same month of last year, declining for the seventh month in a row, mirroring the financial and economic crises. The last time registrations dropped this notably was in 1999 and 1993 with data then, before the EU enlargement, only including the EU15 plus EFTA countries. Last month’s results were aggravated by on average two working days less across the region. Markets in Western Europe and the new EU Member States contracted at a similar pace (-26.0 pct and -22.6 pct respectively). All markets decreased except Finland, Poland and the Czech Republic. In units, European November registrations declined to 932,537 cars. Cumulatively from January to November, 13,788,256 new cars were registered in Europe, representing a 7.1 pct downturn.

In Western Europe, a total of 854,698 new passenger cars were registered in November, or 26.0 pct less than in November last year. The downturn hit all countries except Finland, ranging from -3.5 pct in Portugal to -55.9 pct in Ireland. Of the major markets, Spain was the most severely affected (-49.6 pct), followed by the UK (-36.8 pct) and Italy (-29.5 pct), while Germany (-17.7 pct) faced the steepest fall of its market since December 2007 (-20.3 pct) and France (-14.1 pct) since August 2003 (-15.4 pct). January to November results show a 7.6 pct decline of the West European market, with around one million fewer cars registered compared to the same period last year. France managed to level last year’s demand so far (+0.8 pct), while registrations in Germany declined by 1.5 pct, in the UK by 10.7 pct, in Italy by 13.4 pct and in Spain by 26.0 pct.

Markets in the new EU Member States echoed the November drop recorded in Western Europe, plummeting by 22.6 pct, and against the trend so far. The new EU Member States long showed more resilience, in relative terms, because of the greater number of first-time buyers as opposed to the replacement market of Western Europe. Of the main markets, the Czech Republic (+2.0 pct) and Poland (+10.7 pct) posted growth, compensating the negative results recorded in Hungary (-28.4 pct) and Romania (-53.1 pct). Eleven months into the year, the region posted growth with 0.3 pct more cars registered than over the same period a year earlier. Hungary and Romania saw their new registrations go down by 7.4 pct and 7.5 pct but the Czech Republic and Poland performed better than last year with a 9.3 pct upturn.

Fiat Group saw 75,871 new vehicle registrations during November, putting it 23.8 pct down year-on-year on the 99,596 unit sales it achieved during the same month a year ago; however with the overall European new car market dropping by 25.8 pct, Fiat Group was able to raise its market share from 7.9 to 8.1 pct. The Fiat brand (including Fiat Professional and Abarth) saw 60,456 registrations during November, to put it down 23.5 pct, Lancia had the softest fall out of the Group, as well as comfortably outperforming the market average, as it lost 18 pct after notching up 7,446 sales, while Alfa Romeo shed 30.6 pct with its 7,596 sales. This means though that year-on-year the Fiat brand has raised its share of the market from 6.3 to 6.5 pct, Lancia is up 0.1 pct to 0.8 pct, while Alfa Romeo went in the opposite direction: from 0.9 to 0.8 pct.

After the first eleven months of the year, the Fiat Group has 1,108,880 registrations, down 4.9 pct on the same period last year; however it raises its market share from 7.9 to 8.0 pct. The Fiat brand accounts for 900,844 of these, down 1 pct, while after the first eleven months of 2008 Lancia has 106,723 unit registrations and is down 7.5 pct, and Alfa Romeo's 95,102 units means it is down 29.5 pct. The Fiat brand thus raises its overall European market share for the first eleven months from 6.1 to 6.5 pct year-on-year, Lancia is unchanged on 0.8 pct, while Alfa Romeo drops from 0.9 to 0.7 pct.