The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) on Wednesday reported new vehicle registration totals in the European Union (EU) for December and for all of 2018. Sales declined by 8.4% year over year in the month. Registrations (sales) fell for the fourth consecutive month.
Full-year sales totaled 15.16 million, up just 0.1% from sales of 15.14 million in 2017. In November, sales to date for the year were 0.8% higher than in the first 11 months of 2017. December’s sharp drop, like those in the preceding months, continue to be attributed to new emissions and fuel-consumption testing procedures that went into effect in September.
Of the Detroit Three, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) saw its December market share in the EU rise from 5.6% in 2017 to 6.0%. Unit sales totaled 59,612, down by 2.1% year over year. Sales of the Fiat brand fell by 9.2%, while Jeep sales rose by 37%.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 63,592 units in December, a year-over-year decline of 4.1% for the month. The company’s December market share rang in at 6.4%, up from 6.1% a year ago. Last week Ford announced that it plans to cut thousands of jobs in some of its European plants and yesterday announced a development agreement with Volkswagen.
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) has left the EU market and had sales of just 148 units in November. GM stopped selling vehicles in Europe in July of 2017.
The top-selling maker in the EU is Volkswagen, which sold 231,011 vehicles in November, down 11.3% year over year for the month. VW’s market share for the month totaled 23.1%, down from 23.2% in December 2017. For the full year, VW sold 3.61 million vehicles in the EU, an increase of 0.9% in volume. Full-year market share rose from 23.7% in 2017 to 23.8%.
PSA Group, makers of Peugeot, Citroen and other brands, posted a December sales decrease of 5.8% to 157,505 units. The company’s market share increased from 15.3% to 15.9% for the month and from 12.2% to 16.2% for the year. PSA sold 2.5 million vehicles in 2018, a year-over-year increase of 32.8%, primarily due to the acquisition of the Opel and Vauxhall brands from GM in 2017.
Renault Group posted a volume decline of 16.1% to 117,906 units in December, and its year-over-year share dropped from 13.0% to 11.8%. For the full year, volume rose by 0.8%, while the company’s market share was flat at 10.6%.
BMW Group’s market share remained flat year over year at 8% in December. The company sold 79,696 units last month, down by 8.2% compared with year-ago December sales of 86,835. For the full year, BMW’s share dipped from 6.6% in 2017 to 6.5%, and unit sales drop 0.9% to 989,688.
Daimler posted a market share increase last month, rising from 6.1% in December 2017 to 7.3%, with sales totaling 72,448 units. On a volume basis, sales rose 8.9% year over year. For the full year, volume dropped by 1.9%, and the company’s market share dipped from 6.3% in 2017 to 6.2%.
Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) posted market share of 4.4% in December, flat with a year ago. Sales volume dropped by 10.2% to 43,512 units. For the full year, Toyota sales rose 4.7%, and its market share rose from 4.6% to 4.8%.
For the month of December, Germany was the volume leader with more than 237,000 units sold, down 6.7% year over year for the month and down 0.2% for the full year to 3.44 million units. France posted December sales of just over 165,000, down 14.5% for the month while full-year sales rose by 3% to 2.17 million. In the United Kingdom, monthly sales dropped by 5.5% and full-year sales slid 6.8% to 2.37 million units. Italy saw unit sales rise 2% in December, while full-year sales dropped by 3.1% to 1.91 million units.
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