Ford’s European sales up 7.7% in first five months of 2014

(June 20, 2014) COLOGNE, Germany — Ford said sales in Europe rose 7.7 percent in the first five months of this year — outpacing the industrywide recovery — thanks to strong demand for Ford’s newest vehicles. Ford sold 98,600 vehicles in its European 20 markets in May and 496,400 vehicles year to date, a year-over-year increase of 35,500 units or 7.7 percent. Ford’s market share through May equalled 7.9 percent, up 0.1 percentage points from a year ago.

Ford’s commercial vehicle sales rose 12.8 percent in May and 8.1 percent year-to-date, boosting the company’s CV market share to 10.5 percent in May and 10.2 percent year-to-date, the highest level in 16 years. The Transit remains the best-selling nameplate in the combined one- and two-ton commercial vehicle segment in Europe.

Ford’s focus on growing sales to private retail buyers and fleet customers, which are more positive for brand image and residual values, continues to show progress. Ford sales to European retail and fleet customers increased by one percentage point to 72 percent of total sales in the first five months, two percentage points above the industry average. Likewise, daily rental sales and dealer registrations declined year-over-year to 28 percent.

“Our newest vehicles such as Fiesta, Kuga and Transit have helped Ford make a strong start to 2014 and we have much more to come this year including the new Focus and new Mondeo,” said Roelant de Waard, vice president, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe.

In May, Ford sales fell 900 units or 0.9 percent year-over-year, largely explained by the flow of a high volume of Ford large cars — the Mondeo, S-MAX and Galaxy — into Ford dealerships in May 2013 following a number of months of restricted supply from the Ford Genk plant in Belgium.

With an increase of around 40 percent in the first five months, the Kuga experienced the strongest sales improvement among the Ford vehicle range. The No.1 top-selling Ford model remained the Fiesta, followed by Focus, C-MAX and Kuga.