Europe’s new car market clocks 12 months of sales growth, Spain fastest growing

The European passenger car market is seeing acche din. Sales growth of 2.7 percent in August 2014 compared to the same month last year marked a 12 straight month of continuous growth in the European new car market, according to the latest analysis from JATO Dynamics, the world’s leading provider of automotive intelligence.

The continued recovery in Europe is boosted by significant double-digit growth in a number of mid-sized markets, including Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Volkswagen had three models within the top 10, with the Golf and Polo achieving first and second spot respectively. Replacement models such as the Nissan Note, BMW X5 and Mazda3 proved popular, increasing sales over their predecessors in August

The Spanish new car market continued to benefit from government incentive schemes, resulting in an increase of 23.0 percent on sales compared to August of last year. This was the best performance among the ‘big 5’ markets, although Great Britain also increased sales by an impressive 9.4 percent. France (-2.6%) and Germany (-0.4%) were down and sales in Italy remained flat. All five markets have grown year-to-date, with Spain again the leader with growth of 18.0 percent.

Many of the smaller markets saw positive growth and Greece (+33.6%), Ireland (31.8%) and Portugal (+35.7%) continued to show significant improvements. A number of Eastern European markets also performed strongly in August including Czech Republic (+20.2%), Slovakia (+21.2%), Latvia (+22.5%) and Lithuania (+16.4%). Of the 29 countries studied, 24 have increased their year-to-date sales.

Volkswagen and Ford both enjoyed growth of over 14 percent to take first and second place respectively in units sold in August. Skoda remained in the top 10 brands for the second month in a row after recording an increase of 21.5 percent, making it the only other brand in the top 10 to reach double-digit growth for the month. Toyota remains just outside of the top 10 due to a fall in sales of 5.8 percent for the month. All bar one of the 20 top-selling brands have posted increases in year-to-date sales.

Strong sales of Mitsubishi’s new Plug-In Hybrid version of the Outlander in Great Britain and the Netherlands helped the brand improve its sales by 61.0 percent in August, for a year-to-date gain of 26.4 percent. Jeep’s new Cherokee helped the brand increase sales by 46.6 percent in August, while Porsche’s new Macan led to growth of 42.9 percent. Chevrolet’s sales have decreased by 93.2 percent year-on-year as the brand’s withdrawal from the European market draws near.

August was a good month for medium-volume brands. Mazda continued its year of positive growth with 15.8 percent year-on-year growth in August and a year-to-date increase in sales of 20.9 percent. Volvo also boosted sales in August by 14.6% to take its year-to-date growth to 10.4 percent.

Increased sales of the Volkswagen Polo (up 14.0%), as a result of the new ‘facelift’ models reaching the showrooms, made it a Volkswagen ‘one-two’ at the top of the make and models top 10. August was another good month for the Golf, with Europe’s best-selling car recording growth of 20.1% year-on-year. Sales of the Passat were up by 21.2% compared to August 2013, giving Volkswagen a third model in the top 10.

Ford’s Fiesta (+10.7%) and Focus (+25.3%) were also among the best performers in the top 10 during August. The Skoda Octavia’s sales grew by 22.7% year-on-year to help the brand maintain its progress since the turn of the year. The Renault Clio remained in third place despite a drop in sales of 2.5% due to tough market conditions in France and the Netherlands. Audi’s A3 saw the largest fall in monthly sales of the top 10 models, down 6.8%.

The strength of Europe’s recovery was illustrated by the rate at which some ‘facelift’ models increased sales over their predecessors from a year ago. These included the Nissan Note, the BMW X5 and the Mazda3. Small crossover models, led by the Renault Captur (10.0%), the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka (+44.5%) and the Peugeot 2008 (+67.7%), also continued to perform well.

Brian Walters, vice-president of data at JATO Dynamics, commented: “We are delighted to reveal that we have now seen 12 consecutive months of growth in new car sales in Europe. Although August is traditionally a slower month, this did not prevent brands like Volkswagen, Ford and Skoda from continuing to grow their sales and market share. With many of the recently-introduced models performing well and a significant number of product announcements in the pipeline for the autumn, the market looks set to end the year in similarly good health.”

Growth in Europe’s new car market augurs well for India. In an interview to Autocar Professional, Vinnie Mehta, director-general of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) said: “With the European markets bouncing back, we are certain that more orders and opportunities will be knocking on our doors. Europe has always remained as a strategic export market for Indian suppliers, this year exports from Europe accounted for 38 percent that increased by 14.45 percent as compared to the previous fiscal. India has all the ingredients to emerge as the hub for global component manufacturing and we hope to see an improvement in the volumes for most of the auto companies.”