italiaspeed.com

FIAT GROUP AUTOMOBILES, MIRAFIORI, TURIN

Fiat Group Automobiles models loaded on a transporter near Mirafiori in Turin today: Fiat suffered another falling month of sales during January as European consumers once more shunned its products.

During January the Fiat Group further cemented its position as the worst performing major carmaker in Europe as its total sales fell by a fifth year-on-year against a market that remained almost flat (-1.1 percent). The Fiat brand dropped twenty thousand units last month compared to the same period last year while Lancia lost more than two thousand units and with only Alfa Romeo providing some relief, it put on nearly three and a half thousand units thanks to demand for the Giulietta. In total 1,084,771 new cars were registered in Europe during the opening month of the year according to data released today by manufacturer body ACEA.

Fiat Group's 20.1 percent year-on-year fall last month left it far and way the worst performer in year-on-year terms; the next poorest showing came from Daimler (-13.7 percent). Fiat's peer group had a mixed month: the VW Group (+6.0 percent) led the way as ever with PSA Peugeot-Citroën (-3.6 percent) in second. Then came Renault (-4.8 percent), Ford (-9.4 percent) and GM (+4.5 percent) with Fiat in sixth place. Fiat was however only five thousand units for the month behind Ford (85,295) and GM (84,857), although Renault (110,132), which no so long ago the Italian carmaker had overtaken, has steamed away out of sight over the last year. The rest of the nine main groups comprised of BMW (+20.1 percent), Toyota (-11.1 percent) and Daimler (+13.7 percent).

In total the Fiat Group sold 80,018 cars in Europe last month (EU+EFTA) which, when compared to 100,167 units in January 2009, added up to a year-on-year fall of 20.1 percent. It meant that its market share for the month slumped from 9.2 to 7.5 percent year-on-year.

The Fiat brands' are being hit by aging models, in particular being hit by a weak mid life facelift for the vital B-segment Punto (which may well get an emergency facelift this year to combat it's decline), and the problems are unlikely to be resolved quickly as the carmaker has only one all-new model - the Lancia Ypsilon hatchback - preparing to hit the showrooms. Fiat is also suffering from its lack of preparedness for the arrival of mandatory Euro V legislation which has seen a huge slimming down of the model ranges taking place across the board.

Splitting the Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) brands up for the last month, Fiat Automobiles suffered another dismal showing, down more than a quarter year-on-year (-26.3 percent) after selling 59,498 cars during January, twenty thousand units less than the same month last year when 'scrappage' schemes boosted registrations. That meant its European market share for the month declined from 7.4 to 5.5 percent year-on-year.

Alfa Romeo surged past sister FGA niche brand Lancia in volume terms during January, the sports division posting sales of 12,227 units compared to 8,813 units during the same period a year ago, putting up 38.7 percent. As a result Alfa Romeo's European market share climbed above one percent in January, up from 0.8 to 1.1 percent year-on-year. Lancia however tumbled again, its 7,759 units registered last month compared to 10,138 units during the same period a year ago was down nearly a quarter (-23.5 percent). The Fiat Group's niche luxury/performance brands, Ferrari and Maserati, enjoyed a very solid start to the year: 534 units combined were registered in January compared to 451 units during the opening month of 2010, that was up 18.04 percent year-on-year.

The Chrysler Group, now 25 percent owned by Fiat Group, also made a respectable start to the year. Registrations combined across it's three brands - Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep - came in at 14,518 units last month, and when compared to 13,425 units sold during January 2010, that added up to an 8.1 percent year-on-year rise in sales.