New car sales in the European Union (EU) reversed their gains of January and February to lose ground last month, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) also lost ground, underperforming the market after selling 118,975 units, a fall of more than ten thousand units when compared to March last year.
In March the EU passenger car market declined by 5.3% for the first time this year, with registrations totalling 1,792,599 new cars – the first March drop since 2014. However, it must be noted that last year’s results (with the best March figures on record) constituted a high basis of comparison.
Momentum is starting to slow in some markets and especially in the United Kingdom, where sales dropped by 15.7% in March. New car demand also declined in FCA’s home market Italy (-5.8%) and Germany (-3.4%), but growth was posted in France (2.2%) and Spain (2.1%).
FCA’s total of 118,975 units sold in the EU last month represented an 8% year-on-year decline which underperformed the market and as a result its share of all sales for the month declined by 0.2% to 6.6%.
As usual the Fiat brand was the rotten apple in the barrel and it slid more than twelve thousand units and 12.4% year-on-year to finish March on 87,021 sales. As a result its share of the total European market slumped from 5.3% in March 2017 to 4.9% last month.
For the month of March, Alfa Romeo was up one thousand two hundred units and 8.4% year-on-year to 9,609 units as its sales continue to climb although that represented lower demand than compared to the first two months of the year. Alfa Romeo’s share of the European market remained flat year-on-year at half a percentage point.
Finally, for FCA last month, Lancia finished on 5,269 units, the Italy-only brand losing 37.5% year-on-year, luxury brands Ferrari and Maserati sold a combined 875 cars, which was down 30.5% year-on-year, while the Jeep brand was up 42.4% to 16,201 units.
For the first three months of 2018, demand for new cars in the EU remained slightly positive (+0.7%) despite last month’s decline. Passenger car registrations grew in Spain (+10.5%), Germany (+4.0%) and France (+2.9%), while car demand fell in Italy (-1.5%) and the UK (-12.4%). The strong performance of the new EU member states is worth highlighting here, as demand increased by 11.9% so far this year.
Overall, 4,171,628 new cars were registered in the European Union during the first quarter of 2018.
For the year-to-date FCA has missed the overall market’s very faintly positive trend and is down almost thirteen thousand units and 4.3% to 285,941 units to take a 6.9% share of European sales.
The Fiat brand has lost twenty-two thousand sales and 9.5% over the first quarter year-on-year to rest on 205,718 units sold for the period which gives it a share of all EU sales amounting to 4.9%, down a chunky 0.6% on the same period last year.
Alfa Romeo has enjoyed a very positive 2018 so far and is up three thousand units and 15.1% to 23,910 units. Lancia meanwhile is down by more than a third over the first three months of 2018 to 13,721 units while Ferrari and Maserati have a combined 2,189 sales so far this year, a loss of 22.4% over the first quarter of last year. Finally, for FCA, the Jeep brand is up 53% to 40,403 units.
