Car sales, based on registrations, rose 6.7% in the European Union during January to 999,157. Volkswagen had an extraordinary 25% market share.
Despite its size, VW sales rose at the same rate as the EU, according to the ACEA, also up 6.7% to 245,699. Registrations of VW cars included its Volkswagen, Audi, Skota, Seat and Porsche brands.
No other car manufacturer operating in the region had close to half VW’s sales. PSA Group, maker of Peugeot, had a market share of 10.8%. Just behind that were sales for Renault Group at 9.5%.
After the market leaders, share drops sharply. Ford Motor Co.’s (NYSE: F), portion of the market was only 6.9%, followed by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NASDAQ: FCAU) at 6.3% and then luxury car leader BMW at 6.0%. So, taken together, the top three manufacturers after VW exceed its market share by a very modest amount.
VW’s success in Europe should be measured against the American market, where the leader, General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) only has a 17.6% share, followed by Ford at 15.4% and Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) at 14.7%. The U.S. market produced 1,151,123 vehicles, so it is not terribly larger than Europe.
VW does as poorly in the United States as it does well in Europe. VW sales in January in America were flat at only 23,502, which gave it a market share of 2.0%. At least Audi did well with a 14.3% bump in sales and a 1.0% share of market. However, taken together the two brands presence was negligible.
Without a very strong presence in America, VW has a hole in its efforts to vie for the top spot globally, no matter how well it does in Europe.
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