Suffering the effects of the post incentive scheme
hangover, the German new car market contracted by more
than a quarter last month while Fiat had a shocking
month, its sales collapsed by almost three-quarters as
it turned in the worst year-on-year performance on the
market. It was a disappointing month for Fiat Group,
Alfa Romeo’s sales more than halved and Lancia lost over
60 percent year-on-year. However last month's decline
has to be taken in context, as March Fiat Automobiles
saw its sales climb 218 percent to just under 29,000
units as the German 'scrappage' scheme kicked in with
its first full month.
The overall German new
car market last month saw 294,375 registrations which
equated to a fall of 26.6 percent on the same month last
year. The Fiat Automobiles brand sold 7,819 cars which
added up to a 72.9 percent slump on the same month last
year and gave it a market share of 2.7 percent for
March. Alfa Romeo, with 525 registrations, saw its sales
nosedive by more than a half (-55.2 percent) to take a
0.2 percent share of the market (in comparison last
March Alfa Romeo's sales had jumped by 257 percent)
while Lancia 172 units added up to a 65.2 percent fall
compared to the same period last year. Other big losers
on the market last month included Toyota/Lexus, Suzuki,
Daihatsu and Kia, all of which saw their sales fall by
more than a half.
With less ground to
loose after suffering a collapse in its sales at the
start of last year when the U.S. carmaker was pleading
with the government to give it billions of dollars in
emergency funding to stay afloat, Chrysler Group, now 20
percent owned by Fiat Group, suffered a 36.1 percent
sales fall in Germany last month after consumers
purchased just 731 vehicles combined across its three
brands: Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep.
After the first
quarter of the year, the German new car market has seen
total sales of 670,410 new cars, a year-on-year fall of
22.8 percent when compared to the same period last year.
The Fiat brand has 18,116 sales which is well under half
the registrations it managed in Germany during the
opening three months of last year (-58.8 percent) and
gives it a 2.7 percent stake of the market for the
year-to-date. With 1,552 registrations Alfa Romeo is
down 35.6 percent for the year-to-date and has taken a
0.2 percent share of the market, while after three
months Lancia is on 402 units which adds up to as a fall
of 59.6 percent. The bleak start to the year for this
market means that Nissan/Infiniti (+58.3 percent), Land
Rover (+23.0 percent), Jaguar (+13.6 percent) and
BMW/Mini (+1.4 percent) are the only brands to turn in
year-on-year gains for the opening three months.
Chrysler Group has 1,500 sales for the year-to-date
which equates to a fall of 36.9 percent.
