Ford Motor Company claims its overall sales in Europe continue to outpace industry growth in the
first quarter of 2015.
In total, Ford sold 335,100 vehicles in its 20
traditional European markets in the first three months of 2015 – a
year-over-year increase of 12.5 per cent, closing Ford’s best first quarter
sales performance since 2011.
Ford continued to outpace industry growth
which was 9 percent year-to-date.
Ford’s total vehicle market share reflected
its successful new model introductions as it rose by 0.2 percentage points to
8.2 percent year to date, strengthening Ford’s position as Europe’s No.2
best-selling total vehicle brand.
Ford also recorded its best first quarter for
passenger car sales since 2012, with 264,440 sold year to date, an increase of
6.5 per cent.
“Our strategy of investing to create one of
the freshest line-ups in the industry is paying off as we are seeing consistent
gains in the passenger car market and huge growth in commercial vehicles,” said
Peter Fleet, vice president, sales, Ford of Europe. “We became the top selling
commercial vehicle brand in the industry in the first quarter – up from No. 7
just three years ago – thanks to our completely refreshed and expanded CV
line.”
Ford’s improvement was powered by strong
demand for new models like Mondeo and Transit, performance cars such as new
Focus ST and Focus ST diesel, as well as improved sales of the Kuga and
EcoSport SUVs.
Retail and fleet sales accounted for 73 per cent
of Ford’s passenger car sales in the first quarter, 4 percentage points better
than industry. Ford’s retail market share was 8.6 per cent in the first
quarter, up 0.3 percentage points.
“We expect continued momentum this year as we
roll out new vehicles,” Fleet said. “Overall, this is one of our strongest
years ever for new vehicle launches, with about half of our sales volume coming
from new of significantly freshened models being launched in 2015.”
Ford is preparing to launch new C-MAX and
Grand C-MAX, the all-new S-MAX and Galaxy models, and the new Ford Vignale
Mondeo in the coming weeks.
This summer, Ford starts selling the all-new
Mustang fastback and convertible in Europe for the first time in the iconic
car’s 50 year history. Near the end of the year, Ford will begin producing the
Ford Edge SUV and Focus RS performance hatch.
As Ford prepares to celebrate 50 years of
Transit, the company continued to gain CV sales momentum and improve market
share with its all-new and expanded Transit range, making Ford the No.1
top-selling CV brand in Europe in the first quarter, up from No. 7 in 2012.
This was the first time since 1997 that Ford has held first quarter CV market
leadership in Europe.
Ford CV sales were up 42.4 per cent in the
first quarter, selling 70,646 units. Market share rose by 2.8 percentage points
to 13.3 percentage points – the best market share in almost two decades.
The Transit Custom one-tonne van was the
best-selling nameplate with sales up 50 per cent year-on-year. The Ranger
pickup also closed a strong quarter as the No.1 top-selling vehicle in its
segment year-to-date, selling 6,578 vehicles.
No comments:
Post a Comment