Cars and Drivers

Fiat Chrysler's January EU Sales Top Ford

Paul Ausick

Published: February 16, 2017 7:50 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 2:46 pm

New car registrations in the European Union (EU) for the month of January totaled 1.17 million units, up more than 100,000 units compared with January of last year. Year over year, sales rose by 10.7% in Spain, 10.6% in France, 10.5% in Germany and 10.1% in Italy. Including the four nations in the European Free Trade Association, total sales increased by 10% to 1.2 million units in the month.

Among the Detroit Three carmakers, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) saw unit sales rise 9.9% year over year in January, and General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Opel Group experienced a sales gain of 5.1%. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) posted year-over-year growth of 15%.

Ford’s market share in January was flat at 7.1%. GM’s Opel Group posted a dip of 0.3 point to nab a 6.4% share and Fiat Chrysler added 0.3 point to post a 7.1% share of the EU market.

The big news here is that FCA sold (barely) more vehicles in January than did Ford — 82,555 units for FCA compared with 82,542 units for Ford — and now claims an identical share of the market. GM and the EU’s second biggest carmaker, PSA Group, are discussing the sale of GM’s Opel Group to PSA, maker of Peugeot and Citroen. If the sale materializes, GM will have pulled out of the EU market completely.

The top-selling carmaker in the EU is Volkswagen, which sold 281,877 vehicles in January, up 10.3% year over year for the month. VW’s market share for the month totaled 24.1%, flat compared with January 2016.

PSA Group moved into second place in January with a market share of 10.3%. Renault Group ranked third in January market share with 9.1% of the EU market.

BMW Group’s market share in January remained flat year over year at 5.9%, and the company sold 69,464 units last month, a 10.4% jump year over year.

Daimler posted a market share gain, rising from 5.8% in January 2016 to 6% last month. The company sold 69,986 units in January, a gain of 14.6%.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) posted market share of 5.1% in January, up 0.1 point to 5.1%. The Japanese firm sold 59,658 units in January, a year-over-year increase of 11.9%.

The company with the largest percentage sales increase for January was Suzuki, with sales up 29.9% to 17,401 units. Honda Motor Co. Ltd (NYSE: HMC) sales fell 7% year over year, and Mazda sales fell 9%.

In 2016, total sales for the 27 EU member states came to 14.64 million, up 6.8% compared with 2015 unit sales.