Ford grows vehicle market share in Europe in January

(February 18, 2015) COLOGNE, Germany — Driven by strong customer demand for its new vehicles — including the all-new Mondeo now being rolled out to Ford dealerships across Europe — Ford’s sales and market share in Europe continued to grow in January.

Total sales of Ford vehicles in its 20 traditional European markets totaled 88,700 in January, an increase of 9.8 percent on the same period last year, and outpacing industry growth of 6.5 percent. Ford’s total vehicle market share rose 0.2 percentage points to 7.7 percent.

Ford maintained its strong position as the No. 2 total vehicle and passenger car brand in Europe, and was also the No. 2 commercial vehicle brand in January.

Ford commercial vehicle sales surged 33 percent in January, giving the company a market share of 13.2 percent, up 2.5 percentage points. It was the highest January commercial vehicle market share for Ford since 1995, underscoring the success of Ford’s completely new and expanded commercial vehicle range in Europe.

“More important than simply increasing our market share is that we have achieved this through improved sales on the higher value retail side of the business,” said Roelant de Waard, vice president, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe.

“Our investment in new product and technologies is really paying off, and we will see much more to come on this front in what will be one of the busiest years ever for Ford in terms of new vehicle introductions in Europe.”

Ford’s sales in healthier sales channels – including private retail and fleet customers – accounted for 77 percent of its passenger car sales in January, 7 percentage points better than industry average.

 Vehicle Highlights

Customer demand continued to grow across Ford’s vehicle range. January 2015 saw the best Kuga SUV sales in Europe since the launch of the first-generation Kuga in 2008. Sales of the EcoSport compact SUV were the highest for any month since launch of the model mid-last year.

The Transit family – including Transit, Transit Custom, Transit Connect and Transit Courier – achieved its highest January sales since 2008. Sales of the Ranger pickup also achieved best January sales volumes since the nameplate launched in Europe in 1998.

Sales of the all-new Mondeo were up 29 per cent year-over-year and order take was up 60 percent as the model is rolling out to Ford dealerships across Europe.

Late last month, the Fiesta was confirmed as Europe’s top-selling small car in 2014, for the third year running.