EU Light-Vehicle Sales Slide for 13th Straight Month in October

PARIS – European Union light-vehicle sales fell 4.8% in October, the 13^th straight month of decline, with deliveries through the first 10 months down 7.3% to 10.3 million units in the EU’s 27 member states, according to ACEA, the European auto maker's association.

The U.K. was the only region among the five largest markets to see a positive trend, with sales up 12.1% in October and growing 5% in the first 10 months, compared with year-ago.

Germany, the largest market, eked out a 0.5% gain for October but was down 1.6% year-to-date. Italy’s sales tumbled 19.7% in the first 10 months, while France was down 13.3% and Spain slid 11.9%.

This is the fifth year of declining sales in Europe. The most optimistic outlook for 2013 is the market will remain flat, but the average outlook is that it will continue to fall.

There were no surprises for the auto makers in October. Volkswagen Group far and away outperformed the market, as it has all year, up 1.6% for the month and down 1.0% in the first 10 months.

PSA Peugeot Citroen, General Motors and Ford all suffered losses in October of about 12%, while Fiat deliveries plummeted 16% and Renault’s results plunged 18%. The Jaguar Land Rover and Hyundai-Kia group saw sales increase, while Toyota, Nissan and Honda gained market share in the falling market.

The only European auto groups to gain share through the first 10 months were Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW.

Eight brands were selling ahead of last year after 10 months, led by Land Rover, up 38.1% thanks to the success of the Evoque. Others, in descending order, were Kia, Jeep, Hyundai, Lexus, Audi, Chevrolet and Jaguar.

The overall market showed slight improvement, with October’s 4.8% decline improving on the year-to-date’s 7.3% decline. One reason is that the volume players are heavily discounting to keep their factories going.

The EU auto industry enjoyed six years of steady growth between 1994 and 1999. The last year that saw a gain was 2007 and since then the market has declined annually: down 7.9% in 2008, 1.2% in 2009, 5.6% in 2010, 1.7% in 2011 and 7.3% so far this year.

EU governments are sending their ministers of industry to the European Commission in Brussels Dec. 10 to discuss how to coordinate measures to help preserve auto industry sales and jobs. Already, Ford and PSA have announced assembly plant closings, and Adam Opel is closing Bochum for all intents and purposes. It has no product scheduled beyond 2014.

“Each factory closing is for me another wound,” says Antonio Tajani, the EC commissioner for industry who called for the meeting.