Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) enjoyed a positive November's sales on Europe’s biggest new car market, Germany, as both Fiat and Alfa Romeo made positive year-on-year gains on a surging market that jumped almost ten percent.
In total 302,636 new cars were sold in Germany during the penultimate month of this year and that equated to an impressive 9.4% year-on-year gain as his crucial European new car market gets set to end the year with a real boost. For the year-to-date the German market is also in positive territory, currently resting on 3,187,312 units, up 3% on the first eleven months of last year, with one more month’s sales data still to be added in.
The Fiat brand was positive during November, up 1.7% to 5,281 units although it underperformed the overall market’s sharp gains and thus its share for the month contracted to 1.7%. For the year-to-date Fiat brand is on 80,610 units registered, which is up 11.4% year-on-year, comprehensively outperforming the overall market. It’s share of total German market new car sales so far this year stands at 2.5%.
Alfa Romeo, boosted by the arrival of the new Stelvio SUV, which has joined the Giulia sedan in the showrooms, though saw a very positive surge in its sales, it was up by 43.4% year-on-year, to 578 units to take a 0.2% slice of the market. Alfa Romeo adds the Stelvio Quadrifoglio to its German line-up this month and this range topping high performance option should further help its sales over the coming months.
For the year-to-date the Alfa Romeo brand paints a rosy picture, with 5,756 sales it’s up 50.6% on the same period last year and that makes it the second best performing brand in Germany in year-on-year terms (after U.S. electric vehicle maker, Tesla, which is up 85.8% to 3,042 units). However Alfa Romeo’s data is distorted as last year it was reliant in Germany on the ageing MiTo and Giulietta plus the niche 4C sportscar while it now has a big boost from the new Giulia sedan, which arrived at the dealerships at the end of last year, plus the new Stelvio SUV, which has come on stream this year.
FCA’s other volume brand, Jeep, also continued the positive picture for the month just gone as during November the off-road carmaker’s sales were up 21.9% year-on-year to 1,349 units giving it a 0.4% share of the total market for the month. That helped Jeep slightly offset a steady decline in its German sales this year as after eleven months its 12,138 units sold represents a contraction of 11.1% on the same period last year and means it’s the third heaviest falling brand this year on this market. It’s share of sales for the year-to-date stands at 0.4%.
