|
Outperforming a
rising market, the long awaited bounce in new vehicle
registrations from Fiat Auto got firmly underway in Italy,
as was widely predicted, last month.
October has turned out to be a very good month for the
automobile industry in Italy as a recent poor run of
registrations was turned into a 5.47 percent year-on-year
rise (beating most analysts predictions) with 184,752 new
vehicles hitting the roads (as opposed to 175,176 in October
2004). Overall, for the first ten months of 2005,
registrations are down fractionally at 1.53 pct, with
1,912,331 vehicles being sold this year, compared to
1,942,079 during the equivalent period of 2004.
Fiat Auto's total market share (Fiat, LCV, Lancia and Alfa
Romeo all combined) came in at 28.06 pct, up from 27.6 pct
in October 2004. The two big winners were Fiat and Alfa
Romeo, with the Grande Punto and Alfa 159 respectively,
making their mark felt. Fiat branded registrations
(including LCV) - spurred on by the instant popularity of
the new Grande Punto - climbed up an excellent 10.51 pct, to
39,829, a 21.56 pct share of the market. (Up from 36,042 in
October 2004, equivalent to a then 20.57 pct share).
|
 |
|
Alfa
Romeo - with the stylish new Alfa 159 sedan now
commencing customers deliveries - finally put a long
run of falling market share behind them, to finish
October 2005 up by 6.05 percent year-on-year, with
4,612 new cars registered |
|
|
 |
|
The two
big winners last month in Italy were Fiat and Alfa
Romeo with the new compact Grande Punto (above) and
the new Alfa 159 sedan respectively, making their
presence felt |
|
|
Alfa Romeo - with the stylish new Alfa 159 sedan now
commencing customers deliveries - finally put a long run of
falling market share behind them, to finish October up by
6.05 pct year-on-year, with 4,612 new cars registered. This
gave them a 2.50 pct share of the market (as opposed to 2.48
pct in October 2004 when 4,349 cars were registered). Lancia
- somewhat surprisingly - were the big loser out of the Fiat
Auto portfolio of brands, putting an excellent year of
growth to one side to slip by 7.33 pct, after 7,386 new
Lancias were registered. This gave them a 4 pct share of
their domestic market, down 0.55 pct on October 2004, when
7,386 cars were registered.
Meanwhile, Fiat have announced that the order book for the
new Grande Punto - successor to the outgoing Punto model -
swelled by 15,000 during October, reach 38,000 by the end of
the month. Fiat expect to build 82,000 Grande Puntos this
year and have reported strong interest already from Germany,
France and Spain where the new model went on sale during
October.
|
|
|
|
