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Ford's European Sales Increase
Driven by enthusiastic customer demand for its strongest-ever range of vehicles, Ford – Europe's No.2 best-selling vehicle brand, behind Volkswagen – saw its market share increase for the fifth successive month in May across its main 19 markets. Continued economic uncertainty and lower overall volume, combined with political and industry upheaval in some of the company's major markets has not deterred car buyers from choosing Ford's newest models, the Fiesta and Ka, thereby helping to increase the company's market share to 8.9 per cent in May, up 0.2 percentage points. Ford's year-to-date share was 9.2 per cent, up from 8.7 per cent in the same period in 2008. The company increased its share in 11 out of its 19 main markets in May, and in 18 out of its 19 main markets year-to-date. Total vehicle sales in May were 118,300, 10.6 per cent below May 2008, but a significantly lesser decline than that expected to have been experienced by the overall new vehicle market in Europe. "Despite the rapidly evolving industry, economic and political environment, we are very pleased to be Europe's No.2 best-selling vehicle brand for both May and the year so far," said Ingvar Sviggum, vice-president marketing, sales and service, Ford of Europe. "We have our strongest-ever vehicle range, and we thank our customers for continuing to show such great confidence in the Ford brand." "It's clear, however, from the continuing volume decline that the market is still weak, and it is therefore very important that the scrappage schemes introduced by some countries are continued to support market demand and reduce overall fleet CO2 emissions." "We are already seeing promising signs that the scrappage bonuses introduced in Spain and the UK in mid-May are beginning to gain traction, and we hope they will further stimulate demand in those markets in the coming months. We'd like to see other countries following suit and, where necessary, existing schemes expanded to include commercial vehicles in addition to cars," said Mr. Sviggum. Ford's all-new small cars – the Fiesta and Ka – have contributed strongly to Ford of Europe's market performance year-to-date and in May. Highlights include: Ford Fiesta
Ford Ka
May 2009 market performance Market share was up in 11 of Ford's main 19 European markets in May. Across all of its 51 European markets, Ford sold 138,500 vehicles in May 2009, down 16.3 per cent (or 27,000) when compared to the same month last year. Ford of Europe's top-selling models in May (19 main markets) were the new Fiesta (39,200), the Focus (25,300), and the new Ka (9,400). Britain continued to be Ford's leading European market, and its second-largest global market, in May, selling 26,200 new vehicles to customers. The newly-introduced scrappage scheme added 3,800 Ford registrations to the monthly figures. While sales were down 8,200 units from the same month in 2008, market share rose to 17.3 per cent; up 1.0 per cent compared to May last year. The Fiesta was Britain's best-selling vehicle for the month and year-to-date. Combined Fiesta and Ka sales were just 50 units below their sales figure in May 2008. The Ford Focus was Britain's No.2 best-selling car in May and year-to-date. Germany had the largest industry passenger car volume since March 2000. With a increase of 49.3 per cent versus May 2008, Ford performed even better than the industry. Ford sold 29,100 cars in May, the company's highest sales since May 2001. This marked a 26.9 per cent increase (or an extra 6,200 units) versus the same month in 2008, the market again being positively driven by the government's continuing scrappage scheme. Ford's market share in May increased to 7.9 per cent compared to 7.5 per cent last year, and Ford was the No.3 best-selling brand in the country. Italy witnessed a similar strong sales performance. May sales rose 23.4 per cent, or 3,800 units, lifting Italy's share by 2.6 per cent to 9.8 per cent versus May 2008. Ford remained Italy's leading import brand, while Fiesta continued to be the best-selling imported car and No.3 best-selling car in Italy. France, saw C-MAX and S-MAX as the best-selling imported vehicles in their segments. Ford's total vehicle share for May was slightly down by 0.1 per cent to 5.3 per cent, resulting in sales of 11,400, or a reduction of 1,000 units on the same month 2008. Spain had Ford as the market-leader in May, with a 10 per cent market share. This was down by 0.5 per cent from May 2008, primarily due to Ford's deliberate action to reduce rental volumes.
Year-to-date performance In the first five months of 2009, Ford of Europe sold 590,700 vehicles in its main 19 markets: a reduction of 92,500 vehicles, or 13.5 per cent over the same period in 2008. Ford's market share, however, rose by 0.5 per cent to 9.2 per cent, and 18 out of 19 markets had share gains. Only the market share in Spain was down on a year-to-date basis, primarily a result of Ford's plan to cut rental fleet volumes. Year-to-date May, Ford of Europe sold 680,500 vehicles in its 51 markets, a reduction of 148,100 or 17.9 per cent versus the first five months of 2008. Over the first five months of 2009, Ford of Britain sold 152,400 vehicles, down 45,900 or 23.2 per cent compared to last year. During the period, the UK's industry declined by 30.2 per cent. Ford's market share in Britain has continued to rise in the first five months of 2009 to 18.1 per cent, up by 1.7 per cent from the first five months of 2008. Ford of Germany increased its year-to-date sales by 28.6 per cent. It sold 121,600 new vehicles, an increase of 27,100 over the first five months of 2008. Market share for the first five months of the year rose to 7.5 per cent, up 1.0 per cent compared to 2008. In Italy, the company delivered 99,400 new vehicles to customers. This was up 4,500 units from first five months of 2008 and resulted in a market share increase of 2.1 per cent to 9.9 per cent. In the first five months of 2009, Ford was the best-selling foreign brand in France. Year-to-date market share for Ford France also increased by 0.3 per cent to 5.6 per cent, with sales of 58,900 – a reduction of 6,300 units on 2008. The market in Spain has continued to be one of the most depressed in Europe. The industry fell by 45 per cent in the past five months, with Ford sales totaling 33,400; a reduction of 35,300 or 51.4 per cent on the same period the previous year. Ford's market share in Spain was down by 1.2 per cent to 8.7 per cent. In Russia, 42,800 sales (although down by 35,400 or 45.2 per cent versus the same period last year, the industry declined by 49 per cent) enabled Ford's market share for the first five months of 2009 to rise by 0.6 per cent to 6.7 per cent. May 2009 sales volume
1 The Euro 19 markets are: Austria, Belgium, Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Ford
reports sales for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania through the Finnish National Sales Company, so sales data for the
Baltic states is also included within Euro 19. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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