Europe In May 2012: Losses Widen

Friday, June 15, 2012

Europe In May 2012: Losses Widen

The European car market – if taken together, the world's second largest behind China and before the U.S. – continues its slow drift to the bottom. Sales in May were down by 8.7 percent in the EU. This is the eighth month in a row that sales are in minus territory. Five months into the year, the market is down 7.7 percent.

18 out of 26 EU countries are down, now including all volume markets except the U.K. Greece leads the list of laggards with sales down 47.3 percent. However, the crisis is no longer a southern affair. Second worst country in terms of sales is Finland.

	May
	%Share		Units	Units	% Chg
	'12	'11	'12	'11	12/11
ALL BRANDS**			1,106,845	1,211,665	-8.7
VW Group	24.6	23.8	272,157	288,701	-5.7
VOLKSWAGEN	12.9	12.8	142,628	154,768	-7.8
AUDI	5.7	5.1	63,395	61,623	+2.9
SEAT	2.1	2.2	23,072	27,039	-14.7
SKODA	3.9	3.7	42,795	45,053	-5.0
Others (1)	0.0	0.0	267	218	+22.5
PSA Group	12.0	13.6	132,561	164,677	-19.5
PEUGEOT	6.5	7.3	72,114	88,101	-18.1
CITROEN	5.5	6.3	60,447	76,576	-21.1
RENAULT Group	8.6	9.0	94,814	109,105	-13.1
RENAULT	6.6	7.3	73,366	88,099	-16.7
DACIA	1.9	1.7	21,448	21,006	+2.1
GM Group	8.9	8.9	98,873	107,885	-8.4
OPEL/VAUXHALL	7.4	7.7	81,489	92,887	-12.3
CHEVROLET	1.6	1.2	17,371	14,954	+16.2
GM (US)	0.0	0.0	13	44	-70.5
FORD	7.6	8.0	84,393	96,756	-12.8
FIAT Group	7.3	7.6	80,589	92,166	-12.6
FIAT	5.4	5.6	59,439	67,549	-12.0
LANCIA/CHRYSLER	0.9	0.8	9,645	9,605	+0.4
ALFA ROMEO	0.8	1.0	8,779	12,490	-29.7
JEEP	0.2	0.2	2,357	1,897	+24.2
Others (2)	0.0	0.1	369	625	-41.0
BMW Group	6.4	6.2	70,504	74,951	-5.9
BMW	5.1	4.9	56,883	59,044	-3.7
MINI	1.2	1.3	13,621	15,907	-14.4
DAIMLER	5.2	5.1	57,977	61,734	-6.1
MERCEDES	4.6	4.4	51,103	53,843	-5.1
SMART	0.6	0.7	6,874	7,891	-12.9
TOYOTA Group	3.9	3.2	43,333	38,506	+12.5
TOYOTA	3.7	3.0	41,300	36,624	+12.8
LEXUS	0.2	0.2	2,033	1,882	+8.0
NISSAN	2.9	3.2	31,979	38,429	-16.8
HYUNDAI	3.1	2.7	34,448	32,583	+5.7
KIA	2.8	1.9	30,556	23,527	+29.9
VOLVO CAR CORP.	1.7	1.8	18,384	21,801	-15.7
SUZUKI	1.2	1.1	13,192	13,861	-4.8
HONDA	1.0	0.8	10,758	9,546	+12.7
JAGUAR LAND ROVER Group	0.8	0.6	9,402	6,991	+34.5
LAND ROVER	0.7	0.4	7,512	5,188	+44.8
JAGUAR	0.2	0.1	1,890	1,803	+4.8
MAZDA	0.7	0.8	7,983	9,956	-19.8
MITSUBISHI	0.6	0.8	6,409	9,574	-33.1
OTHER**	0.8	0.9	8,532	10,916	-21.8

Manufacturer-wise, all large European manufacturers are down, led by PSA (-19.5 percent), Renault ( – 13.1 percent), Ford (-12.8 percent) and Fiat (-12.6 percent).

The GM Group is down 84 percent. Losses at Opel (-12.3 percent) are partially offset by a 16.2 percent gain at Chevrolet.

In May, a total of 13 GM cars are listed as imported from the U.S. Following Detroit logic, which postulates that a market must be closed if American cars don't sell , complaints at the WTO should be imminent.

As predicted yesterday, Volkswagen's sales are down in Europe. They are down 5.7 percent in May, they are down 2.4 percent January through May. Volkswagen's data department lists sales as unchanged in May, and up by 1.3 percent January through May. Must be a different Europe.

Data are available here as PDF and here as Excel file.

from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com