It all comes in stark contrast to the same month a year ago when the Fiat Group was riding high on the back of "scrappage" schemes being implemented by governments across the European Union and April's dismal performance, in particular dragged down by its domestic market and also a collapse in its German sales after this market shrank by almost a third, was more than 30,000 units down on the same month a year ago.

New passenger car registrations across the 27 members of the European Union fell by 7.4 percent in April compared to the same month last year. Over the first four months of 2010 the market expanded by 4.8 percent compared to the same period a year ago, while shrinking by 11.6 percent in comparison to January-April 2008. The decline in April registrations, the first in ten months, is linked to the upturn in registrations last year when a growing number of markets had started to benefit from fleet renewal incentives. In the first months of the present year, however, government support has ended or begun to fade out and the economic situation remains difficult.

In absolute numbers, a total of 1,134,701 new cars were registered in the EU in April. Of the largest markets, Germany registered the largest number of new cars (259,414 units) though new registrations declined the most (-31.7 percent) percentage wise, followed by Italy (-15.7 percent), the Czech Republic (-13.2 percent), Poland (-11.9 percent) and Austria (-11.6 percent). The steepest decline was noted in Bulgaria (-50.8 percent). By contrast, markets expanded in France (+1.9 percent), the UK (+11.5 percent), Belgium (+20.3 percent) and Spain (+39.3 percent).

Four months into the year, a total of 4,809,647 new passenger cars were registered in the EU, or 4.8 percent more than in the same period last year. Most of the larger markets increased registrations, ranging from +7.5 percent in Austria to +12.9 percent in France, +13.4 percent in Italy, +23.9 percent in the UK, +43.2 percent in Spain and +59.1 percent in Portugal. Germany (-25.5 percent) and Poland (-10.5 percent), however, recorded a decline.

The Fiat Group saw 87,630 registrations last month in the EU, down 27.3 percent year-on-year (compared to 120,499 units during April 2009) and this contributed to a sharp market share contraction for April, from 9.8 to 7.7 percent. The Fiat brand was the biggest in terms of volume but more unusually it was the biggest loser year-on-year, 70,400 units in April versus 99,082 during the same month a year ago, a fall of 28.9 percent year-on-year and a market share drop from 8.1 to 6.2 percent. Lancia was the best performer from the Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) portfolio although its decline, 16.0 percent, was still more than double the overall market's decline. Lancia saw 9,098 units registered as its market share slipped from 0.9 to 0.8 percent. Alfa Romeo, anxious to see a positive impact from the new Giulietta, continued to fall, its sales of 7,470 units were down by almost a quarter year-on-year (-24.9 percent) and its market share slipped from 0.8 to 0.7 percent. There was better news at the Fiat Group's two niche luxury/performance brands, Ferrari and Maserati; they saw a combined total of 662 sales in April and this put them up 4.4 percent year-on-year.

For the year-to-date the picture looks bleak for Fiat Group also, it is now down 3.6 percent to 409,947 units compared to an overall market that is up by 4.8 percent and all its bigger rivals have made gains, only GM is rooted below Fiat (although it made up some ground during April). The Fiat Group's share of sales so far this year is down from 9.3 to 8.5 percent. Last year the Fiat Group was steaming past the Renault Group but an abrupt reversal in slipping fortunes for the French carmaker leaves it almost 100,000 units ahead of the Fiat Group after the first four months of this year after a year-on-year performance that is up by 30.4 percent. The Fiat brand has 331,887 registrations so far this year, down 4.9 percent year-on-year, which means its share of the market for the year-to-date has slipped from 7.6 to 6.9 percent, Lancia is still a bright spot for FGA, up 10.8 percent to 42,512 units, and with its market share up 0.1 to 0.9 percent, while Alfa Romeo slips 6.9 percent to 33,325 units and its market share is down 0.1 top 0.7 percent. Ferrari and Maserati have a combined 2,223 units for the year-to-date, virtually unchanged (-1.2 percent).