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At the 82nd
Geneva Motor Show the Fiat Group Automobiles
line-up in the Palexpo includes the Fiat
Punto Model Year 2012 (top), Alfa Romeo
Giulietta (middle) and Fiat Freemont
(bottom). |
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Fiat
Group continued its on European sales retreat during
February, dropping 16.5 percent year-on-year after
selling 66,249 cars against a generally bleak backdrop
which saw the overall market contracting by 9.2 percent
for the month.
In total 923,381 new cars were sold in Europe (ACEA data
counting the 27 EU members plus the EFTA signatories) in
February which was down almost one hundred thousand
units on the same month last year. It was a difficult
month for most of the carmakers exposed to the European
market, all the so called 'big nine', with the exception
of Daimler, were hit by swathes of red ink. The worst
performer was Renault which shed 23.7 percent of its
sales year-on-year while Fiat and PSA Peugeot-Citroën
were the equal second largest losers, both down 16.5
percent. Toyota (-13.8 percent) and GM (-13.6 percent)
completed the double-digit losers. The softest landings
came for VW (-2.1 percent), BMW (-0.3 percent) and
Daimler (+5.2 percent).
Fiat Group's 66,249 sales in February compared to 79,309
during the same period last year resulted in its market
share for the month contracting by 0.6 percent to 7.2
percent year-on-year.
The Fiat brand continued to drag Fiat Group Automobiles
(FGA) down in volume terms last month; it shed more than
ten thousand units in year-on-year terms in February to
finish on 46,671 units and as a result its market share
dropped by half a percentage point year-on-year to 5.1
percent.
Lancia however provided a brighter story thanks to the
new B-segment Ypsilon and its sales were up 3.1 percent
in February to 8,887 units, comfortably outperforming
the overall market and raising its market share by 0.2
percent year-on-year to 1.0 percent (8,622 units in
February 2012). Lancia's sales data also includes a
handful of cars in the UK and Ireland from the Chrysler
brand but these are only nominal and don't distort the
picture.
Alfa Romeo is however going the other way, rapidly
giving up the solid gains that came with the new
Giulietta and also being outsold by Lancia. Its 8,102
sales in February was down more than three thousand
units and 29.4 percent year-on-year (11,476 units in
February 2012) and its market share for the month
contracted by 0.2 percent year-on-year to 0.9 percent.
Jeep was in fact FGA's best performer, up 58.1 percent
in February to 2,257 units to take a 0.2 percent share
of the European market (1,428 in February 2011).
Elsewhere the Fiat Group's two luxury/performance
brands, Ferrari and Maserati, saw their combined sales
half (-50.5 percent) year on year from 671 to 332 units.
After the first two months of the year a total of
1,927,113 cars have been sold in Europe according to
ACEA data, down 7.8 percent on the same period last
year. The Fiat Group is on 135,826 sales for the
year-to-date, and when compared to 161,910 during the
opening two months of 2011, that's a fall of 16.1
percent. That leaves Fiat Group as Europe's second worst
performer, well behind Renault which has lost a quarter
of its sales (-24.1 percent) for the year-to-date but
not far behind PSA Peugeot-Citroën (-15.5 percent) and
GM (-13.6 percent) which comprise the market's other big
losers for the year so far. Of the big nine group,
Toyota completes the list of double digit losers, it's
down 10.5 percent for the year-to-date. As a result of
underperforming the overall market, Fiat Group sees its
European market share for the year-to-date drop by 0.7
percent year-on-year to 7.0 percent.
The Fiat brand is enduring a really dismal year so far,
its sales are sharply down, 18.3 percent, to 95,482
units for the year-to-date (116,852 units Jan-Feb 2011)
and its market share for the period slips by 0.6 percent
year-on-year to 5.0 percent.
Lancia is up one thousand units and 5.8 percent to
17,930 units for the year-to-date (16,944 units for
Jan-Feb 2012) which outperforms the overall market.
(Lancia's sales also include a token number of Chrysler
sales in the UK and Ireland).
Alfa Romeo however goes the other way, its 17,025 sales
for the year-to-date is down more than six and a half
thousand units and 28.2 percent (23,723 units Jan-Feb
2011). Jeep is up 59.0 percent to 4,576 units (2,878
units during Jan-Feb 2011) while the Fiat Group's niche
brands, Ferrari and Maserati, have a combined 813 units
for the year-to-date which is a plunge of 45.9 percent.
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