(March 13, 2015) COLOGNE, Germany — Ford of Europe’s all-new and refreshed models — led by the Mondeo, Kuga, EcoSport and Transit commercial vehicle range — helped the company increase sales and market share again in February. 

Ford sold 78,100 vehicles in total in its 20 traditional European markets in February, and 166,600 vehicles in the first two months of the year – a year-over-year increase of 11.7 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively. This compares to industry-wide growth of 7.1 percent in February, and 6.8 percent year-to-date.

The company’s total vehicle market share rose by 0.3 percentage points in both periods, to 7.3 percent in February and to 7.5 percent year to date.

“We are seeing very healthy customer response to our newest vehicles – from the Mondeo, Focus and EcoSport to our all-new line of Transit commercial vehicles,” said Peter Fleet, vice president, Sales, Ford of Europe. “The market is strengthening gradually and we expect to continue to build momentum this year with exciting new vehicles like the Focus ST, Mustang, S-MAX and the launch of our new upscale Vignale line.”

Ford’s improvement in Europe is largely driven by strong sales in higher value sales channels including the private retail and the fleet sector. Ford’s retail market share jumped by a full percentage point to 8.1 percent in February, and by 0.7 percentage points to 8.2 percent year to date. The company’s combined sales in the retail and fleet market accounted for 74 percent of its passenger car sales in February, 6 percentage points better than industry average.

Sales and customer orders were strong across Ford’s product portfolio, led by new model introductions.

Sales of the all-new Mondeo were up 33 percent year-over-year and customer orders were up 70 percent as the Mondeo line-up is currently rolling out to Ford dealerships across Europe. Also customer orders of the new Focus were up by 30 percent compared to the same month last year.

Ford’s SUV sales surged with Kuga sales up 40 percent, the best February for the model since the launch of the first-generation Kuga in 2008. Customer orders were up 38 percent year-over-year. Sales of the EcoSport compact SUV were the highest for any month since launch of the model mid-last year.

With a completely new and expanded Transit range – including Transit, Transit Custom, Transit Connect and Transit Courier – Ford continued to gain commercial vehicle sales momentum and improve market share. Commercial vehicle sales were up 40 percent in February and 36 percent year-to-date. Market share rose by 2.7 and 2.6 percentage points to 11.6 and 12.5 percentage points in February and year-to-date, respectively, the best shares in almost two decades and making Ford the No 2 best-selling commercial vehicle brand in Europe in the first two months this year.

February customer orders for Ford commercial vehicles were up 86 percent year on year.