The Fiat 500 (top) continues to underpin the brand's excellence sales performance across Europe this year while Lancia's solid performance is boosted by the arrival of the new 1.8 DI TurboJet version of the Delta (bottom) into the Italian showrooms this week.

Fiat was the best performer of all the big carmaking groups in Europe during April to increase its share of the market to 9.7 percent and consolidate its fourth place overall; and with registrations up 4.7 pct it was the only one to post a positive year-on-year performance. With all the Fiat Group Automobiles brands turning in highly satisfying performances last month, the statistics highlight Fiat’s strategy to concentrate on building smaller, efficient cars as being the right path to take – and it is a route that is now reaping dividends as buyers in the new car markets across Europe change their priorities.

New passenger car registrations declined for the twelfth consecutive month in Europe, totalling 1,251,862 units in April, or 12.3 percent less than in the same month a year ago. Four months into 2009, the market decrease amounts to 15.9 percent. April counted on average one working day less across the region.

New registrations in Western Europe fell by 11.6 percent in April.  Austria (+ 12.8 percent) and Germany (+ 19.4 percent) were the only countries to post growth, reflecting the effect of fleet renewal incentives. Neighbouring countries with such schemes in place, such as France (- 7.1 percent), Italy (- 7.5 percent) and Luxembourg (- 8.5 percent) recorded a single-digit decrease, while other markets declined more severely.  British and Spanish registrations fell by 24.0 percent and 45.6 percent respectively.

Four months into the year, new car registrations in Western Europe dropped by 15.1 percent.  Germany stood out as the only expanding market (+ 18.4 percent).Elsewhere, the downturn ranged from 4.8 percent (France) to 90.8 percent (Iceland).  Looking at the major markets, Italy contracted by 16.3 percent, the UK by 28.5 percent and Spain by 43.7 percent. The new EU Member States saw their results drop by 21.4 percent in April, with 83,430 new cars registered. Poland (+ 2.4 percent), the Czech Republic (+ 19.0 percent) and Slovakia (+ 43.5 percent) posted growth while Hungary (- 51.5 percent) and Romania (- 51.8 percent) recorded a sharp downturn. Cumulative figures from January to April show the same trend of a general 26.3 percent contraction in the region.  The same three markets expanded, with Slovakia at + 0.3 percent, Poland at + 1.6 percent and the Czech Republic at + 1.8 percent. All other markets performed less well than last year, including large ones such as Slovenia (- 26.5 percent), Hungary (- 35.4 percent) and Romania (- 58.6 percent).

With 121,671 registrations across Europe last month Fiat Group outperformed all its big rivals comfortably and it was the only one to record any positive growth. In fact, of any carmaker of any size in Europe last month, apart from Fiat, only small player Hyundai was in positive territory).  Fiat has overtaken two of its key rivals this year – its potential merger partner GM Europe, and Renault – and it continued to place daylight between itself and these two groups, putting an extra 4,000 units on GM Europe and 11,000 on Renault last month. GM Europe’s Vauxhall/Opel unit was down 12.7 percent year-on-year while its niche brand Saab, which Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne reputedly also wants to include in his plans for a new giant carmaker, saw its sales continue to collapse: it lost 60.2 percent year-on-year in April after selling a paltry 2,484 cars. Only three carmakers are above Fiat in Europe in terms of sales and all three were in negative territory last month: the giant VW/Audi Group (284,607 units; - 4.2 percent), PSA Peugeot-Citroën (156,724; - 14.7 percent) and Ford Europe (125,033; - 6.3 percent) were all squeezed in a market that was down 12.3 percent. Below Fiat, GM Europe (117,921; - 13.3 percent) and Renault (110,148; - 14.0 percent), the bloodbath continued with the German prestige brands Daimler Group (60,214; - 26.3 percent) in seventh place and BMW Group (55,633; - 31.2 percent) in ninth place both finding that customers are continuing to shun their offerings.  Sandwiched between them, Toyota (57,774; - 22.4 percent) also took a big hit. Further down other big losers include Mazda (- 26.1 percent) and Nissan (- 21.8 percent) while the Tata Group’s recent purchase of Jaguar Land Rover continues to prove a disastrous decision, with the English carmaker carrying on its rapid decent into obscurity, losing 37.5 percent after selling just 7,094 units in April.

With 121,671 registrations last month compared to 116,671 in 2008, the Fiat Group was up 4.7 percent year-on-year to raise its overall European market share from 8.1 to 9.7 percent.  Splitting the Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) brands up, Fiat (including Abarth) saw 99,918 registrations in April, up 5.4 percent, while Lancia, with 10,889 units, was virtually unchanged, down 0.6 percent, cushioned from the market’s sharp drop by the new Delta which is steadily increasing its presence across Europe. With Lancia’s very future threatened by the formation of a new Fiat-Opel grouping it is interesting to note the Turinese brand’s continued resilience, that it outsold GM’s Saab brand in April by a margin of 4:1 and that it was less than 100 units shy of the sales total for the month of BMW’s much-vaunted Mini brand.  Lancia also outsold sister brand Alfa Romeo which saw 10,192 sales of its sporty cars, an excellent performance led by growing demand for the new MiTo, putting it up a market-busting 5.0 percent. These figures for April equate to a year-on-year market share leap from 6.6 to 8.0 percent for the Fiat brand, while Lancia is up from 0.8 to 0.9 percent, and Alfa Romeo climbs from 0.7 to 0.8 percent.

After the first four months of the year Fiat Group is the best performer of the big carmaking groups in Europe year-on-year, down 5.2 percent with 430,014 registrations (453,641 in Jan-Apr 2008) comparing well to the overall market’s 15.9 percent fall.  This raises its share of all European sales from 8.1 to 9.2 percent.  Above Fiat for the first four months of the year, VW/Audi Group is down 8.1 percent, PSA Peugeot-Citroën has lost a thumping 18.0 percent, while Ford Europe sees its sales dropping by 11.4 percent. Immediately below Fiat, GM Europe (424,983; - 22.3 percent) and Renault (389,969; - 19.7 percent) have both been overhauled by the Italian carmaker this year, and which continued to increase the gap during April. Renault’s drop in fortunes would have been even more dire if it wasn’t for its captive low-cost Dacia brand which was up 60.4 percent year-on-year in April and is up 6.0 percent for the first four months of the year. Below them there is a double-digit fall for Toyota (246,525; - 19.7 percent) while the hammering of the German prestige brands continues with both Daimler-Benz (222,595; - 24.9 percent) and BMW (214,673; - 27.7 percent) having lost a quarter of their sales compared to the opening four months of last year.

Splitting the FGA brands up, the Fiat brand has 352,234 registrations so far this year and is down 6.2 percent year-on-year, Lancia (38,617) is down 11.2 percent, and Alfa Romeo (36,761) is up 15.6 percent. This raises Fiat’s market share from 6.7 to 7.5 percent, Lancia is unchanged on 0.8 percent, while Alfa Romeo climbs from 0.6 to 0.8 percent.