Ford and GM Post Poor Sales in Europe

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 8:04AM EST · Published May 14, 9:05AM EDT

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Ford and GM Post Poor Sales in Europe — © courtesy of Cadillac

The European car market continues to post sales that recently have risen more quickly than those in the healthy United States and, in many cases, China.

Last month offered more proof, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association:

In April 2016, the EU passenger car market posted strong results again, marking the 32nd consecutive month of growth. Registrations during the month grew by 9.1% compared to April 2015, reaching 1,273,733 units. This is the highest result in volume terms since April 2008, just before the economic crisis hit the automotive industry. Among the major markets, Spain (+21.2%) and Italy (+11.5%) recorded the strongest performances with double-digit percentage gains, followed by Germany (+8.4%), France (+7.1%) and the UK (+2.0%).

From January to April 2016, new passenger car registrations increased by 8.5%, totalling more than 5 million units (5,094,026). All major markets posted growth, contributing to the overall upturn of the EU market. The Italian (+18.6%) and Spanish (+10.3%) passenger car markets saw double-digit growth over the period, followed by France (+7.9%) and Germany (+5.6%). The UK market also grew (+4.4%) during the first four months of 2016, although at more modest rate.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) were exceptions. Each has only a modest-sized presence in the market and needs strong results to gain ground. Ford sales rose only 4.0% to 87,291 last month. GM, which goes by the name of Opel Group there, posted a 6.8% gain to 81,310.
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The largest car company in the European Union by far is still Volkswagen, although its sales clearly have been hurt by the diesel engine scandal. Its sales rose 2.7% to 152,619. Its market share fell from 12.7% in April last year to 12.0%. Its parent, Volkswagen Group, did better with sales up 5.4% from the same month last year to 321,286. The strength was due to its two luxury brands: Audi sales rose 10.3% to 74,648 and Porsche sales rose 13.4% to 7,343.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) held its place as the top Japanese manufacturer in the EU with sales up 11.8% to 49,955 for the month.

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.