As predicted by TTAC, European car sales were up slightly in April. Car sales in the EU rose by 1.7 percent in the month, Europe’s car manufacturer association ACEA says. We warned you before not to read too much into it, and we warn you again.
According to the ACEA, “the region counted on average two more working days compared to the same month last year, which would account for the increase.” Actually, what happened was that the Easter week fell into March this year, last year, it was in April. March and April, taken together, shows sales down 5 percent. In the first four months of the year, the EU new car market was down 7.1 percent. A week ago, we expected the market to be “down around 7 percent for the first four months of the year.”
| April | |||||
| %Share | Units | Units | % Chg | ||
| ’13 | ’12 | ’13 | ’12 | 13/12 | |
| ALL BRANDS** | 1,038,343 | 1,021,358 | +1.7 | ||
| VW Group | 26.5 | 24.5 | 274,925 | 250,102 | +9.9 |
| VOLKSWAGEN | 13.5 | 12.9 | 140,010 | 131,682 | +6.3 |
| AUDI | 6.2 | 5.8 | 63,939 | 58,925 | +8.5 |
| SEAT | 2.6 | 1.9 | 27,127 | 19,731 | +37.5 |
| SKODA | 3.8 | 3.9 | 39,451 | 39,551 | -0.3 |
| Others | 0.4 | 0.0 | 4,398 | 213 | +1964.8 |
| PSA Group | 11.2 | 12.7 | 116,197 | 129,272 | -10.1 |
| PEUGEOT | 6.2 | 6.8 | 63,885 | 69,292 | -7.8 |
| CITROEN | 5.0 | 5.9 | 52,312 | 59,980 | -12.8 |
| RENAULT Group | 8.9 | 8.6 | 92,635 | 87,942 | +5.3 |
| RENAULT | 6.5 | 6.7 | 67,849 | 68,613 | -1.1 |
| DACIA | 2.4 | 1.9 | 24,786 | 19,329 | +28.2 |
| GM Group | 7.7 | 8.2 | 79,686 | 83,483 | -4.5 |
| OPEL/VAUXHALL | 6.5 | 6.5 | 67,264 | 66,037 | +1.9 |
| CHEVROLET | 1.2 | 1.7 | 12,409 | 17,420 | -28.8 |
| GM (US) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 13 | 26 | -50.0 |
| FORD | 7.3 | 7.5 | 75,831 | 76,256 | -0.6 |
| FIAT Group | 6.4 | 7.2 | 66,643 | 74,011 | -10.0 |
| FIAT | 5.0 | 5.3 | 51,442 | 53,809 | -4.4 |
| LANCIA/CHRYSLER | 0.7 | 0.9 | 7,529 | 9,266 | -18.7 |
| ALFA ROMEO | 0.5 | 0.8 | 5,661 | 8,457 | -33.1 |
| JEEP | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1,584 | 2,077 | -23.7 |
| Others (2) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 427 | 402 | +6.2 |
| BMW Group | 6.1 | 6.4 | 63,373 | 65,833 | -3.7 |
| BMW | 5.0 | 5.2 | 51,553 | 53,576 | -3.8 |
| MINI | 1.1 | 1.2 | 11,820 | 12,257 | -3.6 |
| DAIMLER | 5.8 | 5.3 | 60,377 | 54,525 | +10.7 |
| MERCEDES | 5.2 | 4.7 | 53,859 | 47,774 | +12.7 |
| SMART | 0.6 | 0.7 | 6,518 | 6,751 | -3.5 |
| TOYOTA Group | 3.9 | 3.8 | 40,616 | 38,572 | +5.3 |
| TOYOTA | 3.8 | 3.6 | 39,205 | 36,711 | +6.8 |
| LEXUS | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1,411 | 1,861 | -24.2 |
| NISSAN | 2.9 | 2.8 | 30,260 | 28,614 | +5.8 |
| HYUNDAI | 3.4 | 3.4 | 35,106 | 34,350 | +2.2 |
| KIA | 2.8 | 2.7 | 29,490 | 27,517 | +7.2 |
| VOLVO CAR CORP. | 1.7 | 1.8 | 17,557 | 18,594 | -5.6 |
| JAGUAR LAND ROVER Group | 0.8 | 0.7 | 8,710 | 7,486 | +16.4 |
| LAND ROVER | 0.7 | 0.6 | 7,065 | 5,978 | +18.2 |
| JAGUAR | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1,645 | 1,508 | +9.1 |
| HONDA | 1.0 | 0.9 | 10,092 | 9,591 | +5.2 |
| SUZUKI | 1.1 | 1.2 | 11,633 | 11,784 | -1.3 |
| MAZDA | 0.9 | 0.8 | 9,257 | 8,441 | +9.7 |
| MITSUBISHI | 0.6 | 0.6 | 6,388 | 5,646 | +13.1 |
| OTHER** | 0.9 | 0.9 | 9,567 | 9,339 | +2.4 |
On a manufacturer basis, the Volkswagen Group (+9.9 percent in April) continues to outpace the market. So does Daimler (+ 10.7 percent.) Not all carmakers were able to profit from the favorable alignment of the calendars. PSA is down 10.1 percent, Fiat is down 10 percent, BMW lost 3.7 percent. GM Group is down 4.5 percent with a very strong drop for Chevrolet and a slight gain for Opel. Ford is down 0.6 percent.
Maybe if Mistusbishi combined their US and Euro operations, they could sell more cars than Tesla.
Mitsubishi Motors sold around 1 million cars worldwide in 2012… but ok, 20k per year for Tesla is awesome after a billion in US Gov aid.
:-)
Lord forgive me spw if I accidentally implied a compliment to Tesla when I was really just trying to slam Mitsu USA, which I have turned into sort of a hobby.
Musk has enough money without getting welfare transfer payments from me.