November European Auto Sales Slide for Third Straight Month

Cars and Drivers

Published: December 14, 2018 7:25 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 1:42 pm

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) on Friday reported new vehicle registration totals in the European Union for the month of November. Sales declined by 8% year over year in the month. Registrations (sales) fell for the third consecutive month, which the ACEA still attribute to the September 1 implementation of new emissions and fuel-consumption testing procedures that drove sales much higher in July and August as automakers and dealers cleared out non-compliant vehicles.

Overall monthly sales totaled 1.12 million vehicles. Sales for the first 11 months of 2018 totaled 14.16 million, an increase of 0.8% compared with the same period in 2017.

Of the Detroit Three, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) saw its November market share in the EU remain unchanged year over year at 5.9%. Unit sales totaled 68,720, down by 8% year over year. Sales of the Fiat brand fell by 11.4%, while Jeep sales rose by 29.1%.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 72,783 units in November, a year-over-year decline of 8.4% for the month. The company’s November market share rang in at 6.3%, the same as last year. In its own report on November sales released Wednesday, the company said sales dropped 5.4%, but Ford counts sales in fewer countries than does the ACEA.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) has left the EU market and had sales of just 190 units in November. GM stopped selling vehicles in Europe in July of 2017.

The top-selling maker in the EU is Volkswagen, which sold 275,004 vehicles in November, down 11.3% year over year for the month. Its market share for the month totaled 23.7%, down from 24.6% in November 2017.

PSA Group, makers of Peugeot and Citroen among other brands, posted a November sales decrease of 6.1% to 187,901 units. The company’s market share increased from 15.9% to 16.2%.

Renault Group posted a volume decline of 15.9% to 117,269 units in November, and its share dropped from 11.1% to 10.1% year over year.

BMW Group’s market share increased in November from 7.0% a year ago to 7.4%. The company sold 85,679 units last month, down by 2.6% compared with year-ago November sales of 87,950.

Daimler also posted a market share increase last month, rising from 6.4% in November 2017 to 7.2% with sales totaling 82,892 units. On a volume basis, sales rose 3.1% year over year.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) posted market share of 5.1% in November, up from 4.5% a year ago. Sales volume increased by 2.8% to 58,625 units.

For the month of November, Germany was the volume leader, with more than 272,000 units sold (down 9.9% year over year for the month), followed by France with sales of nearly 172,000 (down 4.7%), the United Kingdom with nearly 159,000 sales (down 3.0%) and Italy with almost 147,000 vehicles sold (down 6.3%).

EU sales totaled 15.14 million units in 2017, compared with 2016 sales for the 27 EU members of 14.64 million, a year-over-year increase of 3.4%.

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