Renault up but EU down
June 18th, 2010 by Richard Aucock
RENAULT is the big winner in European car sales, but the market overall is down by more than 8 percent.
JATO Dynamics blames poor sales in Germany, which means the year-to-date EU market improvement has fallen to below 3 percent.
The UK market was up, though, and Spain offered encouragement by bucking the recession in growing sales significantly, too.
Big brands are struggling across Europe – again, chiefly because of the plummeting German car market. It was down a huge 35 percent in May, which is hitting sales of traditional strong models such as the Volkswagen Golf, Vauxhall Astra and Ford Fiesta.
David Di Girolamo, head of JATO Consult, said: ‘The economic waves that are buffeting the European countries are now starting to effect sales of brands that traditionally enjoyed loyalty in their ‘home’ markets, allowing other brands to benefit and establish a stronger foothold.’
Renault is a rare shining light in the top 10 EU best sellers, increasing sales by more than 10 percent in May. Strong sales of the Clio were key to this – they were up 108 percent in the UK!
Ford, in contrast, was down 17 percent, and even market leader Volkswagen declined nearly 12 percent. Ford did, however, nab 3rd place back from Peugeot.
May 2010 top EU brands
1 Volkswagen
2 Renault
3 Ford
4 Peugeot
5 Vauxhall
6 Citroen
7 Fiat
8 Audi
9 Mercedes
10 BMW
May 2010 top EU cars
1 Volkswagen Golf
2 Ford Fiesta
3 Volkswagen Polo
4 Renault Clio
5 Vauxhall Corsa
6 Peugeot 207
7 Vauxhall Astra
8 Ford Focus
9 Renault Megane
10 Fiat Panda