New car registrations in the European Union (EU) for the month of December totaled 1.14 million units, up about 30,000 units compared with December of last year. Year over year, sales rose by 9.3% in Spain, 5.8% in France and 13.1% in Italy. Including the four nations in the European Free Trade Association, total sales increased by 3% to 1.19 million units in the month.
For the full year, total sales for the 27 EU members came to 14.64 million, up 6.8% compared with the 2015 unit sales. Germany posted a 12-month total of 3.2 million, while registrations in the United Kingdom totaled 2.69 million and new registrations in France rose to 1.92 million, ahead of 1.82 million unit sales in Italy.
Among the Detroit Three carmakers, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) saw unit sales drop 3.9% year over year in December and General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Opel Group experienced a sales increase of 1.9%. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) posted year-over-year growth of 13.4%.
Ford’s market share in December slipped year over year from 7% to 6.5%. GM’s Opel Group posted a dip of 0.1 point to nab a 6.2% share and Fiat Chrysler added 0.6 point to post a 6.3% share of the EU market.
For the full year, Ford’s unit sales totaled 1.02 million and unit sales have risen by 3% compared with 2015. Full-year market share has dropped from 7.2% to 7.0%. Opel Group’s share has dipped from 6.8% to 6.7% on unit sales of 979,427, up 5.4% over last year, and FCA’s market share has risen from 6.2% a year ago to 6.7% on unit sales of 977,594, up 14.4% compared with 2015.
The top-selling carmaker in the EU is Volkswagen, which sold 264,434 vehicles in December, up 6.7% year over year for the month. VW’s market share for the month totaled 23.1%, up from 22.3% in December 2015.
Renault Group ranked second in December market share with 12.9% of the EU market and PSA Group, makers of Peugeot and Citroen among other brands, ranked third with 9.1% of the market.
BMW Group’s market share in December slipped from 7.6% last year to 7.2%, and the company sold 81,835 units last month, a 3.1% dip year over year. For all of 2016, BMW’s market share rose from 6.5% a year ago to 6.7% on sales of 987,479 units, a jump of 10.1% for the year.
Daimler also posted a market share gain, rising from 5.6% in December 2015 to 6.4% last month. For the full year, the Mercedes-Benz maker posted a year-over-year share gain of 0.4 point, to 6.2% on sales of 909,734 units, a jump of 13.8%.
Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) posted market share of 4.5% in December, up 0.1 point compared with last year. For the full year, the carmaker’s market share remained unchanged at 4.2%.
The company with the largest percentage sales increase for 2016 is Jaguar Land Rover, with sales up 22.8% to 215,418 units. Honda Motor Co. Ltd (NYSE: HMC) has lifted sales by 20.6% in 2016, and Mazda sales are up 13.1% year over year.
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