Europe In March 2010: Up 11.1 Percent. Ford Largest Brand?

The European Car Manufacturers Association has released its March numbers for Europe. At first glance, they are promising: New car registrations in the EU (as defined in Brussels) were 10.8 percent higher than in the same month of 2009. In the EU27 plus EFTA (including Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) registrations rose 11.1 percent. From here on, we will use the EU27 plus EFTA definition, just like the industry usually does.

A lot of the growth is the last hurrah caused by expiring cash-for-clunkers programs. Then, there is the Ford surprise, which we had been tracking since yesterday.

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  • ToolGuy The only way this makes sense to me (still looking) is if it is tied to the realization that they have a capital issue (cash crunch) which is getting in the way of their plans.
  • Jeff I do think this is a good thing. Teaching salespeople how to interact with the customer and teaching them some of the features and technical stuff of the vehicles is important.
  • MKizzy If Tesla stops maintaining and expanding the Superchargers at current levels, imagine the chaos as more EV owners with high expectations visit crowded and no longer reliable Superchargers.It feels like at this point, Musk is nearly bored enough with Tesla and EVs in general to literally take his ball and going home.
  • Incog99 I bought a brand new 4 on the floor 240SX coupe in 1989 in pearl green. I drove it almost 200k miles, put in a killer sound system and never wish I sold it. I graduated to an Infiniti Q45 next and that tank was amazing.
  • CanadaCraig As an aside... you are so incredibly vulnerable as you're sitting there WAITING for you EV to charge. It freaks me out.