Industry News
JATO reports strong start to 2006 European luxury and city/utility car sales
29th March 2006
Luxury and city/utility car sales benefited most from the 3% upturn in European new car registrations in January 2006, indicates JATO Dynamics' analysis of registrations data for Western and Eastern Europe. shows that product-led growth lifted luxury car sales by 72% y-o-y and city car sales by 29% y-o-y in January 2006.
The new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, with registrations up 200% compared to January 2005, headed a rise of 2,223 units in the European luxury segment, to 5,313 units.
City car segment sales rose 18,124 to 80,437 units, helped by sales of around 6,000 each for the Czech-built Citroën C1, Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo, as well as an 8.8% sales y-o-y increase for the segment leader, Fiat's Panda.
Overall, most market segments enjoyed sales increases in January, averaging 6%, but a 9.3% fall in registrations of lower medium segment cars (a decline of more than 25,000 units after strong sales of newly launched models in 2005) was primarily responsible for holding overall market growth to 2.7%.
Although the growth in SUV sales was less spectacular than in previous months, registrations still grew by 4.0% with the new Mercedes-Benz M-Class (up 147%) leading the Hyundai Tucson (up 44%) and new Suzuki Vitara/Grand Vitara/XL-7 (up 41%).
JATO says there was no respite from the decline in the sports segment volumes, with volumes down by 19.3% year-on-year.
Strong sales of its Passat, Fox, Golf Plus and Jetta saw Volkswagen start 2006 as Western Europe's top-selling car brand, ahead of Ford (up 3.0%), Renault, Opel/Vauxhal, and Peugeot. Fiat saw sales increase by 22.9% due to strong sales of the new Grande Punto. Outside the top 10, Seat achieved a 21.0% increase thanks to the new Leon, and improved sales of Altea. Suzuki's performance was even more impressive, with the new Swift and Grand Vitara leading a 44.6% rise in sales. Saab sales rose by 27.5%. Other manufacturers posting double-digit percentage rises
included Audi, BMW, Skoda, Mazda, Kia and Land Rover.
(www.jato.com)
News Headlines
