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Cars and Drivers

GM’s Europe Sales Continue to Drop

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Opel Adam
courtesy of General Motors
Car sales in Europe were decimated by the deep recession, which is not over in some countries, at least based on employment and gross domestic product. However, the very modest rebound from the trough has triggered some improvement in regional car sales, although it may take some time for those sales to return to their pre-recession peaks. One company that has not been lifted by the overall trend is General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM). The region has posted losses for years, as the number one American car company has tried to get its footing.

In total, September car registrations made a tiny jump, which has been a trend for some time. According to the ACEA:

In September, the EU market for new passenger cars expanded for the thirteenth consecutive month, totalling 1,235,501 units. Substantial growth prevailed in all major markets, Spain (+26.2%), France (+6.3%), UK (+5.6%), Germany (+5.2%) and Italy (+3.3%) leading to an upturn (+6.4%) across the region as a whole.

The United Kingdom is by far the largest market in the European Union, and it posted 425,861 registrations last month, up 5.6%. Germany is the largest market on the continent, with 260,062 cars registered in September.

The largest car company in Europe posted a growth rate slightly better than the overall market. Volkswagen sales rose 6.7% to 290,524. It holds 23.5% of the market, well above the one U.S. market leader GM has in America at 17.9%. PSA Group, number two in Europe, registered 127,366 cars, which was up 9.8% from September last year. After that, Renault Group rose 10.7% to 103,417. Ford Motor Co.’s (NYSE: F) registrations have moved ahead of GM’s and its numbers rose 6.7% to 101,399. GM lagged with registrations down 5.9% to 92,578. This caused GM’s market share to drop to 7.5% in September from 8.5% in the same month a year ago.

Just three weeks ago, GM management commented that it expected to make money in Europe in 2016. However, forecasts of what will happen more than a year out are dangerous to make. GM, in particular, has a steep hill to climb, particularly since its sales in Europe continue to erode quickly.

ALSO READ: 5 Reasons Oil Is Not Rising

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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