Europe In April 2013: Up A Tad
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 %ShareUnitsUnits% Chg’13’12’13’1213/12ALL BRANDS**1,038,3431,021,358+1.7VW Group26.524.5274,925250,102+9.9VOLKSWAGEN13.512.9140,010131,682+6.3AUDI6.25.863,93958,925+8.5SEAT2.61.927,12719,731+37.5SKODA3.83.939,45139,551-0.3Others0.40.04,398213+1964.8PSA Group11.212.7116,197129,272-10.1PEUGEOT6.26.863,88569,292-7.8CITROEN5.05.952,31259,980-12.8RENAULT Group8.98.692,63587,942+5.3RENAULT6.56.767,84968,613-1.1DACIA2.41.924,78619,329+28.2GM Group7.78.279,68683,483-4.5OPEL/VAUXHALL6.56.567,26466,037+1.9CHEVROLET1.21.712,40917,420-28.8GM (US)0.00.01326-50.0FORD7.37.575,83176,256-0.6FIAT Group6.47.266,64374,011-10.0FIAT5.05.351,44253,809-4.4LANCIA/CHRYSLER0.70.97,5299,266-18.7ALFA ROMEO0.50.85,6618,457-33.1JEEP0.20.21,5842,077-23.7Others (2)0.00.0427402+6.2BMW Group6.16.463,37365,833-3.7BMW5.05.251,55353,576-3.8MINI1.11.211,82012,257-3.6DAIMLER5.85.360,37754,525+10.7MERCEDES5.24.753,85947,774+12.7SMART0.60.76,5186,751-3.5TOYOTA Group3.93.840,61638,572+5.3TOYOTA3.83.639,20536,711+6.8LEXUS0.10.21,4111,861-24.2NISSAN2.92.830,26028,614+5.8HYUNDAI3.43.435,10634,350+2.2KIA2.82.729,49027,517+7.2VOLVO CAR CORP.1.71.817,55718,594-5.6JAGUAR LAND ROVER Group0.80.78,7107,486+16.4LAND ROVER0.70.67,0655,978+18.2JAGUAR0.20.11,6451,508+9.1HONDA1.00.910,0929,591+5.2SUZUKI1.11.211,63311,784-1.3MAZDA0.90.89,2578,441+9.7MITSUBISHI0.60.66,3885,646+13.1OTHER**0.90.99,5679,339+2.4On 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.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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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. :-)