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Fiat
and Alfa Romeo were both big sales winners in
the UK in July as the new car market finally
turned positive after 15 consecutive months of
falling registrations, and although the total
market gained just 2.4 percent, Fiat was up by
24.16 percent while Alfa Romeo climbed by an
impressive 45.79 percent.
New car
registrations in the UK rose 2.4 percent in July to 157,149
units. This was the first growth in 15 months, reflecting
the positive impact of the scrappage incentive scheme.
Registrations from private buyers and of small cars were up
in July although the overall market is still down by almost
550,000 units over the past 12 months.
The Fiat brand
sold 5,216 cars in the UK during July compared to 4,186
units during the same month last year and these totals added
up to a 24.61 percent year-on-year rise. Fiat was able to
successfully tap into the positive effects of the scrappage
scheme which evident in growth seen in the small car sectors
last month. A-segment registrations more than trebled in
July, from 2008, while B-segment "supermini" volumes rose
15.7 percent to account for 37.5 percent of all
registrations in the UK. The new 500C has also just gone on
sale in the UK tapping into the fact that this market
sustains Europe's biggest demand for new cabriolet cars.
This all meant that Fiat was able to raise it's share of all
sales in the UK for July year-on-year from 2.73 percent to
3.2 percent.
Alfa Romeo
weighed in with 901 sales last month, compared to 618 in
July 2008, which adds up to a hefty 45.79 percent
year-on-year hike and increases its market share from 0.40
to 0.57 percent year-on-year during the seventh month of the
year.
FGA's sports
division, Abarth, sold 90 cars in the UK last month (a 0.06
percent share of July sales) versus 20 units during the same
period a year ago when it was just starting to establish
itself after its relaunch in the country and this meant its
sales were up 350 percent year-on-year, the best performance
year-on-year of any brand selling cars in the UK. Other big
winners last month as the UK market finally gained ground
included Hyundai which was up a massive 203.45 percent on
sales of 6,011 cars while Kia (3,719 units; +65.07 pct),
Suzuki (2,135 units; +57.91 percent) and Mitsubishi (1,157
units; +53.65 percent) all stood out. Chrysler Group had a
very mixed month and while the Chrysler brand (213 units;
-49.29 percent) and Jeep (96 units; -54.29 percent) both saw
their sales continue to collapse, Dodge weighed in with 276
sales that was in fact more than double it managed during
July last year, equating to a 105.97 percent year-on-year
rise. UK consumers gave a big thumbs down to offerings from
Jaguar, Toyota, Land Rover, BMW, Vauxhall, Saab, Lexus,
Mazda and Renault during July.
After the first
seven months of the year more than 1.4 million cars have
been sold in the UK which is down 22.76 on the first seven
months of 2008. For the year-to date Fiat has sold 27,556
cars in the UK, compared to 35,234 a year ago, to leave it
down 21.79 percent year-on-year although this fractionally
outperforms the overall market's severe decline and means
that its market share for the first seven months stands at
2.55 percent versus 2.53 percent a year ago. Alfa Romeo is
positive on last year for the year-to-date and its 4,813
cars in the first seven months of 2009 compared to 4,070
during the same period a year ago puts it up 18.26 percent
and increases its share of all sales so for this year in the
UK from 0.39 to 0.44 percent year-on-year. Abarth has now
sold 702 cars this year and as July 2008 was its first month
back in the UK registrations tables there is no accurate
data to compare; however for the record its year-on-year
increase stands at a huge 3,410 percent after the first
seven months of the year and it has 0.06 percent of all
sales so far this year.
Chrysler Group
has little good news to report in the UK this year as its
sales continue to crash around Europe and after the first
seven months of 2009 the Chrysler brand has 1,274 sales,
down almost three quarters (-72.58 percent) on the same
period last year while the other two brands in the Group's
portfolio have seen their sales more than half this year:
Jeep has 1,206 sales for the year-to-date and is down 58.31
percent, while Dodge, despite more than doubling its UK
sales in July, has managed to shift just 1,233 cars so far
this year, leaving it down 53.35 percent.
"The impact of
the scrappage scheme is clear and we are encouraged by the
positive impact it has had, increasing new car registrations
for the first time since April 2008," said Paul Everitt,
SMMT chief executive. "Industry still faces a long road to
recovery and we urge government to take action to sustain
economic recovery through easing access to finance and
credit and delivering the loan guarantees set out by the
Automotive Assistance Programme."
The
scrappage scheme came into effect on 18 May and
orders are now being translated into
registrations, which is boosting the new car
market with volumes up for the first time since
April 2008. July’s modest 2.4 percent growth
took the market to 157,149 units, 10.4 percent
above SMMT's forecast for the month (of 142,300
units), but was still 10.1 percent below the
average for July evident between 1999 and 2008,
of 174,879 units. Registrations to UK private
buyers were up for a second successive month,
with a 33.4 percent gain recorded in July.
Although the private market was weak last year,
the 2009 total was the best for the month since
2004. The Ford Fiesta has been the best selling
model eight times in the last nine months.
Hyundai, with the i10, was in the top ten for
the first time ever during July.
Volumes over the past 12 months have dropped by
548,330 units, reflective of how much the
recession has knocked demand. The market is
expected to fall 14.4 percent to 1.825 million
units this year and decline a further 5 percent
in 2010 to 1.73 million units.
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