The Fiat Automobiles
brand suffered another shocking month in Germany during
June, its sales collapsed by a half, making it the worst
performance by a mass market brand during the month,
while Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) sister brands, Alfa
Romeo and Lancia, saw their own sales suffering just as
badly as Europe's biggest car market continued to
struggle in the wake of the recent withdrawal of
state-backed incentives.
A total of 289,259 new
cars were sold in Germany last month, that was down by
32.3 percent on June 2009, and in fact only three
carmakers represented on the market managed to turn in a
positive performance in June: BMW/Mini (+0.6 percent)
and Land Rover (+8.9 percent). Fiat was the biggest
loser amongst the mass market brands but rivals to
suffer almost as badly from the slowdown last month
included Toyota/Lexus (-48.2 percent), SEAT (-47.4
percent), Renault/Dacia (-45.0 percent), Ford (-39.9
percent), Citroën (-39.7 percent), Opel (-36.9 percent),
Skoda (-34.8 percent), Hyundai (-22.6 percent) and VW
(-20.4 percent).
Fiat Automobiles was
one of the biggest beneficiaries as German consumers
turned to smaller, more frugal cars last year, but it
has turned into one of the biggest losers this year as
the state incentives that favoured its model mix have
dried up: last month it saw 8,571 registrations in
Germany, that was down by a half (-50.5 percent) on the
same month last year and gave the Italian brand a 3.0
percent share of the market for June. Alfa Romeo,
suffering from a nosedive in demand for the D-segment
159 sedan across Europe and a slowdown in demand for the
MiTo on this market compared to the same time last year
saw 867 sales in Germany last month, down 41.3 percent
year-on-year, and that added up to it taking a 0.3
percent share of all sales for the month. Lancia was the
biggest loser from the FGA stable in Germany during
June: with just 159 registrations that added up to a
59.5 percent drop in sales compared to the same month
last year.
After the first six
months of the year Germany has seen a total of 1,468,791
new car registrations which is 28.7 percent down
year-on-year and with only three carmakers,
Nissan/Infiniti, Land Rover and Jaguar, managing to post
positive performances compared to the first half of last
year. The Fiat brand has 43,451 registrations for the
year-to-date and has given up all the gains it made last
year, it is now down 57.6 percent for the year-to-date
and has a 3.0 percent share of the market. Alfa Romeo
has 3,548 sales for the year so far, down 46.6 percent
on the same six month period of last year and it holds a
0.2 percent share of the market for the year-to-date,
while Lancia has collected 809 sales thus far this year
and is the biggest FGA loser in year-on-year terms, down
61.4 percent.
Chrysler Group, 20
percent owned by Fiat Group, has little further it can
fall on any market in Europe and it saw just 732
registrations combined across its three brands -
Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep - in Germany last month, that
was down 13.5 percent year-on-year. For the year-to-date
the Chrysler Group has a combined total of 3,508
registrations which is down almost a quarter (-22.8
percent) on the corresponding six month period last
year.
