GOLF BACK IN TOP SPOT AS EUROPEAN ‘SCRAPPAGE SCHEMES’ BITE

Golf is back as Europe's most popular model scrappage schemes affect certain markets VW still Europe's best-selling brand European new car market down 16.8% YTD

JATO Dynamics, the world's leading provider of automotive data and intelligence, has released its monthly European new car market analysis for April 2009, showing the Volkswagen Golf has re-claimed its crown as Europe's best-selling car, while Volkswagen remains the best-selling brand.

Ford has kept up the pressure on its German rival however, with the new Fiesta continuing to increase its sales across Europe, up 19.7% year-to-date and 26.9% for the month of April. Fiesta has sold especially well in the 'big 5' European new car markets (Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain), where its introduction has also coincided with scrappage schemes incentivising consumers towards new, smaller cars.

Beyond the Ford Fiesta, only two other cars in the top ten have managed to increase sales year-to-date over the same period in 2008, with the Volkswagen Polo up by a slim 0.7% and Fiat Panda up by an impressive 17.6%.

This small car success is in marked contrast to the overall European new car market, which dropped by 17.5% (247,001 units) in April 2009 versus April 2008, to a monthly total of 1,162,257 units. This translates to a year-to-date fall of 16.8% (or 925,225 units) versus the same period last year, with total sales of 4,576,015.

'National government scrappage schemes are really starting to have an impact, both in the sales volumes in different markets and in the type of cars being sold', says David Di Girolamo, Head of JATO Consult. 'The bigger picture shows the size of the drop in new car sales across Europe and we'll continue to monitor this closely for signs of a wider improvement.'

All but one of the top ten best-selling models in Europe are now B or C segment cars, accounting for 1,031,780 sales year-to-date between them, or 22.5% of the total market.

Top 10 Models

Make & Model Apr_09

Apr_08

% Change Apr

Apr YtD_09

Apr YtD_08

% Change YtD

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF

41,398

44,612

-7.2%

162,366

169,089

-4.0%

FORD FIESTA

34,471

27,170

+26.9%

149,911

125,285

+19.7%

Peugeot 207

28,987

43,045

-32.7%

119,635

165,915

-27.9%

FIAT PUNTO

27,935

30,643

-8.8%

101,219

120,751

-16.2%

OPEL/Vauxhall CORSA

27,857

34,465

-19.2%

108,376

140,578

-22.9%

FORD FOCUS

27,389

34,605

-20.9%

105,659

140,861

-25.0%

VOLKSWAGEN POLO

23,879

25,708

-7.1%

100,648

99,960

+0.7%

FIAT PANDA

23,039

18,831

+22.3%

95,236

80,955

+17.6%

Renault CLIO

22,397

34,771

-35.6%

88,730

132,480

-33.0%

VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT

20,911

24,932

-16.1%

71,372

91,357

-21.9%

Brand Performance

Volkswagen was once again Europe's top-selling car brand in April, but with sales down 10.1%, versus 2008. Ford maintains a close second, while Renault has moved up to take third place for April, benefitting from significant domestic sales increases for Megane and Twingo in France.  It remains fifth year-to-date, behind Opel/Vauxhall and Fiat.

Top 10 Brands

Make Apr_09

Apr_08

% Change Apr

Apr YtD_09

Apr YtD_08

% Change YtD

VOLKSWAGEN

137,034

152,435

-10.1%

509,455

552,135

-7.7%

FORD

101,148

110,231

-8.2%

418,815

461,225

-9.2%

RENAULT

86,922

111,072

-21.7%

323,250

416,900

-22.5%

OPEL/VAUXHALL

84,192

111,292

-24.4%

337,105

444,069

-24.1%

FIAT

83,164

93,454

-11.0%

332,762

371,137

-10.3%

PEUGEOT

76,145

99,444

-23.4%

308,520

391,239

-21.1%

CITROEN

72,478

82,483

-12.1%

270,851

322,799

-16.1%

AUDI

59,849

63,041

-5.1%

212,574

223,662

-5.0%

MERCEDES

56,369

70,707

-20.3%

192,270

257,036

-25.2%

Toyota

51,408

72,717

-29.3%

233,848

297,982

-21.5%

Most of the major brands experienced a drop in sales during April, with Hyundai, Dacia and Alfa Romeo the only volume car brands to post an increase in year-to-date sales, versus 2008.

National Trends

Behind the downward European sales trend, the picture of national new car sales shows the varying effect of scrappage schemes around Europe.

Germany's new car market continues to benefit, just as the German government has announced plans to extend its scrappage scheme until the end of 2009, with sales down only 3.1% in April and up 11.6% year-to-date. All other major European new car markets are still suffering the effects of the global recession and while many now have national incentive schemes in place to encourage purchase of new cars, the effect of these is yet to be felt in the UK and Spain.

Sales by Market

Country

Apr_09

Apr_08

% Change Apr

Apr YtD_09

Apr YtD_08

% Change YtD

Austria

35,898

31,813

+12.8%

100,194

105,591

-5.1%

Belgium

47,641

61,703

-22.8%

191,493

231,567

-17.3%

Cyprus*

1,474

1,809

-18.5%

5,871

7,707

-23.8%

Czech Republic*

15,809

18,832

-16.1%

52,629

61,573

-14.5%

Denmark

7,885

16,117

-51.1%

32,444

55,467

-41.5%

Estonia

1,164

2,801

-58.4%

3,868

10,236

-62.2%

Finland

7,433

15,494

-52.0%

36,844

61,724

-40.3%

France

184,475

198,558

-7.1%

689,931

724,679

-4.8%

Germany

308,173

317,960

-3.1%

1,176,263

1,053,874

+11.6%

Great Britain

133,475

175,668

-24.0%

613,833

859,017

-28.5%

Greece*

16,377

28,033

-41.6%

65,506

107,104

-38.8%

Hungary

6,707

14,576

-54.0%

29,087

54,197

-46.3%

Iceland

71

622

-88.6%

364

3,944

-90.8%

Ireland

4,448

13,261

-66.5%

37,037

105,974

-65.1%

Italy

189,029

204,710

-7.7%

730,876

874,950

-16.5%

Latvia

546

2,250

-75.7%

2,061

8,240

-75.0%

Lithuania

797

2,535

-68.6%

2,725

9,372

-70.9%

Luxembourg

5,875

6,419

-8.5%

15,886

19,909

-20.2%

Norway

7,504

11,704

-35.9%

26,745

41,678

-35.8%

Poland*

27,705

28,057

-1.3%

115,672

114,981

+0.6%

Portugal*

13,566

18,447

-26.5%

45,347

73,660

-38.4%

Slovakia*

8,701

8,612

+1.0%

23,612

28,354

-16.7%

Slovenia

4,840

7,730

-37.4%

19,488

26,529

-26.5%

Spain

63,565

123,482

-48.5%

261,583

471,091

-44.5%

Sweden

18,249

27,478

-33.6%

62,186

89,301

-30.4%

Switzerland*

20,567

28,582

-28.0%

79,341

95,124

-16.6%

The Netherlands

30,283

42,005

-27.9%

155,129

205,397

-24.5%

Grand Total

1,162,257

1,409,258

-17.5%

4,576,015

5,501,240

-16.8%

* denotes estimated volumes for April 2009 The above data is provided by JATO Consult, the company's bespoke consulting service which offers customers access to its unique data and provides solutions and advice to meet a wide range of automotive business challenges. For more information visit www.jato.com, or email consult@jato.com .

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