Even as America’s Auto Industry is suffering, Ford of Europe has posted suprising gains in retail sales for the month of March, 2009. Leading the way in Ford of Europe’s sales has been the all-new Ford Fiesta, which has been rapidly increasing in popularity all over Europe.
In the 19 main European markets, the top-selling Ford car models included the Ford Fiesta, the Ford Focus, and the Ford Transit for the month of March. Since approximately 56 percent of March sales were generated purely from retail customers (up from 43 percent in March 2008), this is good news for Ford’s European Auto Industry. This resulted in an increase in total market share in approximately 16 (of the 19) major European markets. March marked the highest sales ever for the Ford Fiesta, also making it the best-selling Ford model in European markets.
As of right now, Ford of Europe has increased its market share to 10.0% due to this sales increase. This is the first time that Ford of Europe’s market share has been in the double-digits since September of 2001. It was only in Spain, France and Switzerland that Ford of Europe showed a decline in market shares.
For the past five months, the Ford Fiesta has been the top best-selling model in Britain. Also, for the first time since March of 2007, Ford was the most popular brand for foreign car purchases in Russia. Ford’s Russian market shares have increased to 8.4%, up a total of 1.8 percentage points from 2008. In Italy, sales of Ford vehicles have increased 21.7% from March of 2008. This resulted in an increase of Ford’s Italian market share to 10.1%, up a total of 2.3 percentage points from the same month in 2008.
Even with these seemingly promising numbers, it’s important to remember that over the 51 European markets, Ford’s total vehicle sales are down 16.3% from the same time last year. However, it is still worth noting that Ford of Europe seems to be dealing with the current financial crisis fairly well in comparison to the rest of the Automobile Industry.
