The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association reported a 1.4% rise in sales to 1.01 million vehicles during February for the first time in 11 months. The sales gain was led by impressive sales of Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. (GM)’s Opel branded cars and strong demand for new models in Germany and France — two largest markets in the European Union (EU) — as well as in Poland .
Sales by Volkswagen Group grew 9.1% to 226,126 vehicles driven by higher sales of its namesake and Audi brands. The company’s recently introduced upgraded version of Passat has been well received in the EU markets.
General Motors sold 85,366 vehicles during the month, up 8.3% from the year-ago level. Sales of the company’s Opel branded cars escalated 8.9% to 72,542 units while that of Chevrolet lineup rose 5.4% to 12,771 units during the month.
Nick Reilly, the head of Opel brand in Germany and its sister brand Vauxhall in the U.K., has revealed that revamped version of Meriva minivan and the Astra Sports Tourer helped the company to win market share in the region.
Apart from these two major automakers, sales at Renault SA, Daimler AG (DDAIF) and BMW did not show any significant improvement during the month under study. Sales by Renault SA went up 3.1% to 113,342 vehicles as sales of its namesake brand increased 2.7% to 94,616 units and that of Dacia rose 5.4% to 18,726 units.
Daimler AG sold 42,724 vehicles during the month, up 3.2% from the prior year. Sales of Mercedes Benz cars scaled up 3.3% to 37,108 units while that of smart USA inched up 2.1% to 5,616 units. Meanwhile, BMW’s sales zoomed 13.4% to 49,683 units.
PSA Group, Ford Motor Co. (F), Fiat SpA and Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) lost sales during the month. Sales at PSA Group dipped 5% to 141,894 units driven by lower sales of Citroen. Meanwhile, sales at Ford fell 12.1% to 73,133 vehicles, Fiat slashed 16.7% to 76,808 vehicles and Toyota slid 3.1% to 43,018 units.
Automakers are concerned about car sales in Europe in the near term. They expect rising prices of steel and oil to adversely affect sales and shift consumer preference towards a particular class of cars.
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