Listening to the news from Europe, one thinks that there is chaos in the streets of Europe. Not yet. But Europeans are clearing room for chaos by buying fewer cars. 1,017,912 new passenger cars were registered in the EU, or 6.9 percent less than in the same month of 2011. Four months into the year, new registrations in the EU were 7.5 percent lower than a year earlier, the European manufacturers association ACEA reports.
| April | April | % Chg | |
| ’12 | ’11 | 12/11 | |
| FINLAND | 4,052 | 11,406 | -64.5 |
| GREECE | 4,409 | 10,192 | -56.7 |
| PORTUGAL | 8,400 | 14,418 | -41.7 |
| DENMARK | 9,065 | 13,437 | -32.5 |
| IRELAND | 6,770 | 8,685 | -22.0 |
| SPAIN | 56,250 | 71,805 | -21.7 |
| SWEDEN | 23,336 | 28,940 | -19.4 |
| ITALY | 129,663 | 158,113 | -18.0 |
| CYPRUS | 1,168 | 1,390 | -16.0 |
| ROMANIA | 4,307 | 4,999 | -13.8 |
| NETHERLANDS | 41,178 | 47,635 | -13.6 |
| SLOVENIA | 4,362 | 5,007 | -12.9 |
| BELGIUM | 48,326 | 53,300 | -9.3 |
| LITHUANIA | 1,063 | 1,164 | -8.7 |
| BULGARIA | 1,500 | 1,584 | -5.3 |
| FRANCE | 166,552 | 169,757 | -1.9 |
| AUSTRIA | 32,728 | 33,317 | -1.8 |
| SLOVAKIA | 5,794 | 5,675 | +2.1 |
| LUXEMBURG | 5,373 | 5,221 | +2.9 |
| GERMANY | 274,066 | 266,251 | +2.9 |
| UNITED KINGDOM | 142,322 | 137,746 | +3.3 |
| LATVIA | 884 | 845 | +4.6 |
| POLAND | 23,904 | 22,399 | +6.7 |
| CZECH REPUBLIC | 16,589 | 14,620 | +13.5 |
| ESTONIA | 1,566 | 1,356 | +15.5 |
| HUNGARY | 4,285 | 3,701 | +15.8 |
| EUROPEAN UNION (EU27)* | 1,017,912 | 1,092,963 | -6.9 |
The UK (+3.3 percent) and Germany (+2.9 percent) were the only major markets to post growth. Sales in France contracted by 1.9 percent. Mediterranean Italy was down 18.0 percent, Spain 21.7 percent.
Not surprisingly, Greece was down-56 percent, Portugal lost 41 percent. Surprisingly, people in Finland went on a partial buyers strike (- 64.5 percent.)
| April | |||||
| %Share | Units | Units | % Chg | ||
| ’12 | ’11 | ’12 | ’11 | 12/11 | |
| ALL BRANDS** | 1,017,912 | 1,092,963 | -6.9 | ||
| VW Group | 24.6 | 24.3 | 250,023 | 265,524 | -5.8 |
| VOLKSWAGEN | 13.0 | 13.2 | 131,885 | 144,781 | -8.9 |
| AUDI | 5.8 | 5.2 | 58,848 | 56,620 | +3.9 |
| SEAT | 2.0 | 2.4 | 19,903 | 25,992 | -23.4 |
| SKODA | 3.8 | 3.5 | 39,170 | 37,924 | +3.3 |
| Others (1) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 217 | 207 | +4.8 |
| PSA Group | 12.7 | 11.8 | 129,576 | 129,380 | +0.2 |
| PEUGEOT | 6.8 | 6.6 | 69,421 | 71,970 | -3.5 |
| CITROEN | 5.9 | 5.3 | 60,155 | 57,410 | +4.8 |
| RENAULT Group | 8.6 | 9.5 | 88,015 | 103,682 | -15.1 |
| RENAULT | 6.7 | 7.6 | 68,657 | 83,387 | -17.7 |
| DACIA | 1.9 | 1.9 | 19,358 | 20,295 | -4.6 |
| GM Group | 8.2 | 8.6 | 83,755 | 93,989 | -10.9 |
| OPEL/VAUXHALL | 6.5 | 7.3 | 66,160 | 79,629 | -16.9 |
| CHEVROLET | 1.7 | 1.3 | 17,574 | 14,339 | +22.6 |
| GM (US) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 21 | 21 | +0.0 |
| FORD | 7.6 | 7.7 | 76,921 | 84,155 | -8.6 |
| FIAT Group | 7.3 | 7.6 | 73,906 | 83,491 | -11.5 |
| FIAT | 5.3 | 5.5 | 53,703 | 60,339 | -11.0 |
| LANCIA/CHRYSLER | 0.9 | 0.8 | 9,239 | 8,581 | +7.7 |
| ALFA ROMEO | 0.8 | 1.1 | 8,436 | 12,249 | -31.1 |
| JEEP | 0.2 | 0.1 | 2,089 | 1,639 | +27.5 |
| Others (2) | 0.0 | 0.1 | 439 | 683 | -35.7 |
| BMW Group | 6.5 | 5.9 | 65,681 | 63,989 | +2.6 |
| BMW | 5.3 | 4.7 | 53,442 | 51,697 | +3.4 |
| MINI | 1.2 | 1.1 | 12,239 | 12,292 | -0.4 |
| DAIMLER | 5.4 | 5.0 | 54,525 | 54,473 | +0.1 |
| MERCEDES | 4.7 | 4.3 | 47,774 | 47,436 | +0.7 |
| SMART | 0.7 | 0.6 | 6,751 | 7,037 | -4.1 |
| TOYOTA Group | 3.8 | 4.1 | 38,324 | 44,758 | -14.4 |
| TOYOTA | 3.6 | 3.8 | 36,468 | 41,722 | -12.6 |
| LEXUS | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1,856 | 3,036 | -38.9 |
| NISSAN | 2.8 | 3.3 | 28,632 | 35,779 | -20.0 |
| HYUNDAI | 3.4 | 3.1 | 34,405 | 34,302 | +0.3 |
| KIA | 2.7 | 2.1 | 27,517 | 23,096 | +19.1 |
| VOLVO CAR CORP. | 1.8 | 1.9 | 18,667 | 20,500 | -8.9 |
| SUZUKI | 1.1 | 1.3 | 11,154 | 14,355 | -22.3 |
| MAZDA | 0.9 | 0.9 | 8,707 | 9,613 | -9.4 |
| MITSUBISHI | 0.6 | 0.9 | 5,831 | 9,346 | -37.6 |
| JLR Group | 0.7 | 0.5 | 7,486 | 5,792 | +29.3 |
| LAND ROVER | 0.6 | 0.4 | 5,978 | 4,637 | +28.9 |
| JAGUAR | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1,508 | 1,155 | +30.6 |
| HONDA | 1.0 | 0.9 | 9,741 | 9,515 | +2.4 |
| OTHER** | 0.5 | 0.7 | 5,046 | 7,224 | -30.2 |
On the OEM front, Volkswagen shows the expected first symptoms of EU weakness. In Apri, the Volkswagen Group is down 5.8 percent in Europe. Many automakers, notably Renault, GM, and Fiat show double digit losses in April. Losing less than others, VW gained further market share.
“…one thinks that there is chaos in the streets of Europe. Not yet.”
Not yet, but we are going to get there. Here’s a new report on the collapsing real estate market in China:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.ca/2012/05/real-estate-crash-in-china-underway.html
It’s one thing to be in economic trouble, as Japan has been for the past two decades, when the rest of the world is still growing. It’s quite another to be sinking when the rest of the planet is too. The era of using public-debt-fuelled spending to buy social and political peace is over.
No one knows what this new world is going to look like, but a pretty good bet would be that it’s not going to involve people buying new cars whenever they please. And when they do buy, it will be smaller and cheaper (i.e. the unit count will hold up better than the revenue-per-vehicle figure.)
In previous Europe sales result posts Bertel usually mentions market share losses (especially for Opel and FIAT). I note this time very little said about that. Interestingly Toyota lost as much market share (in absolute terms) as FIAT even though they started from a smaller base. Honda grew a little and Nissan/Renault had a terrible time. I am also surprised by PSA’s strong result – they are usually another who does badly.
So Ford is down by 8 percent and JLR is up by almost 30 percent. Ford Europe barely makes a profit, JLR profits top a billion pounds a year now. And Ford was right to sell?
JLR is the tiger car maker of the premium sector these days how many (apart from me) predicted that when Ford sold up?
The numbers for Finland should be no surprise after the buying spree in March (https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/04/europe-in-march-2012-car-nage/) and the taxation change in April. March+April is still up 30% over 2011, and numbers will likely stabilize in a few months’ time.