Fiat Automobiles has
ended a disastrous year in Germany as the worst
performing volume brand on the market for 2010 with its
sales down by over a half on the previous year a result
that was laid bare even further by the overall market
which fell by just under a quarter.
Fiat was in fact the
second worst performer of any brand selling new cars on
the German market, volume or niche, with the wooden
spoon actually falling to its sister Fiat Group
Automobiles (FGA) brand Lancia. Alfa Romeo, helped by
the arrival in the showrooms of the Giulietta during the
later stages of the year managed to keep its
year-on-year fall to just over a quarter.
The German new car
market finally put a losing streak behind it during
December after 230,371 registrations placed it into
positive territory, up 6.9 percent year-on-year. That
end of year bounce helped Fiat Automobiles to reduces
its year-on-year decline for the final month of 2010 to
21.9 percent, which after its summer and autumn sales
collapse looks reasonably respectable, and the Italian
brand actually outperformed three of its volume rivals:
Ford, Citroën and Nissan. Fiat sold 4,712 cars in
Germany during December to take a 2.0 percent share of
all sales.
Alfa Romeo continued
its late year upturn in form in Germany in December
thanks to the arrival of the Giulietta to counterbalance
fading demand for the MiTo. FGA's "sports" brand sold
820 cars during the final month of the year to take a
0.4 percent share of the market but, more importantly,
that was 113.5 percent up year-on-year. Lancia sold a
paltry 159 cars during December. However the faded brand
finally bounced into positive territory, up 59.0 percent
year-on-year, as the previous December had seen it sink
into double figures.
For the full year,
Germany has seen 2,916,260 new cars sold in total, down
23.4 percent on 2009's total when government "eco"
incentives distorted the market. The Fiat brand ended
the year with just 78,190 registrations on this market,
the biggest in Europe, and that is down by more than a
half (-52.3 percent) year-on-year and adds up to a
market share of 2.7 percent. Alfa Romeo rounds out 2010
with 8,621 registrations, down 28.1 percent year-on-year
and with a 0.3 percent share of all registrations for
the year. The disappearance of the 159 and the weakness
of the MiTo without incentives to tempt buyers was
counterbalanced later in the year somewhat by the
arrival of the Giulietta. Lancia meanwhile, with an
ageing range and in the Delta a model that doesn't offer
the quality to justify its pricing pretensions, has
virtually ceased to exist on this market, it managed
just 1,463 units in total last year in Germany, down
57.3 percent year-on-year to take its share of all sales
in 2010 down to 0.1 percent.
Meanwhile the Chrysler
Group, a present 20 percent owned by Fiat Group although
the Italian company has hinted this week that it could
soon raise its stake to 51 percent, sold 631 cars in
total on the German market during December combined
across its three brands - Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep - and
that was in fact 51 percent up year-on-year. For the
full year of 2010 the Chrysler Group has 6,363
registrations in Germany combined across its brands,
down 17.4 percent year-on-year.
