GM Europe Sales Down 5.5 Percent In January 2013
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As European passenger car registrations dropped 8.5 percent in January to their lowest total for the month since 1990, General Motors sales decreased 5.5 percent to 68,179 units, compared to 72,114 sold in January 2012 — according to industry association ACEA.
Opel
Opel/Vauxhall sales totaled 58,637 units compared to 56,130, representing a 4.5 percent increase on an annual basis. The results were boosted by the new and apparently popular Mokka subcompact crossover… who would’a thunk?
Chevrolet
Meanwhile, the Bow Tie brand slipped fell sunk 40.2 percent, selling 9,521 in January 2013 compared to 15,930 in January 2012.
The Forecast
Don’t expect the bad news to stop here, since the European car market is expected to continue its downward spiral this year. Most automakers forecast the regional market to shrink between three and five percent in 2013, marking the sixth straight year of declining sales.
The Charts
Unfortunately, General Motors Europe doesn’t release model-by-model sales charts… but we did manage to get our hands on the following report from ACEA. Download or view it here (PDF file format).
The GM Authority Take
With such a gloomy market forecast, we wish all automakers in Europe good luck over the next couple of years… especially The General. Steven Girsky, new Opel chief Karl-Thomas Neumann, and the rest of the GM Europe team seem to have their work cut out for them.
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Alex – the UK market may have had more of an impact on GM sales than is usual, in January Vauxhall sales were up over 50% (albeit compared to a very poor Jan 12) and Chevrolet sales were down 66% although the Chevy numbers are so small as to be insignificant.
Wow this chart really opened up my mind to the Euro market and how dominant Volkswagon is; I had no idea… And then the fact that there really is kind of another 7 or so manufacturers selling above 50, and how Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai are selling in the 30s and 40s… The market is clearly saturated wow, I would have never guesed Honda would be a nobody over there Wow…
Excellent month for GM Europe, considering.
I had read the statistics this morning, and read something completely different than the headline of this blog entry: Opel sales were increased in January 13 compared to the same period of previous year, and only one of six brands which increased against the overall market trend: BMW, Mercedes, Dacia, Land Rover and Jaguar, as well as Honda and Mazda, out of 31 named brands and some “others”.
But I actually did not see that the gain in Opel sales did not compensate the loss in Chevrolet sales…
Now, this is just one month, and in the Opel/Vauxhall sales there might be some special effects because the first Adams are arriving at the dealers and the first Mokkas might be actually arrived in customer’s hands.
Remarkable on the other end of the scale are the losses of Mitsubishi of 39.9% and Ford of 25.8%.
All those figures for the combined EU27 plus EFTA countries.
Please note that the sales region of GME (GM Europe) does extend beyond this trading block. From the GM 2011 Annual Report:
“GME has sales, manufacturing and distribution operations across Western and Central Europe. GME’s vehicle sales volume, which in addition to Western and Central Europe, includes Eastern Europe (including Russia and the other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States among others) represented 19.2% of our vehicle sales volume in 2011. In 2011 we had the number four market share in this market at 8.8%. GMIO distributes Chevrolet brand vehicles which, when sold in Europe, are included in GME vehicle sales volume and market share data.”
The industry association ACEA is at http://www.acea.be
(be as Belgium, the country where the EU “capital” city, Brussels, is located).
Then there are statistical artifacts like the increase of “Volkswagen other” by 1787,4% from 199 in January 2012 to 3756 in January 13… well, in January 12, this summarized only Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini, but in August 12, Porsche was completely integrated into the VW conglomerate, and from then on, the Porsche numbers were added to “Volkswagen other”.
Also note that these figures cover only passenger cars, not commercial vehicles. And Opel/Vauxhall do produce or co-produce a number of them in cooperation with Renault and FIAT.
While ACEA, the European automobile industry association and lobby, does not release statistical figures down to individual models, such data are available country by country, at least for Germany, where the “Kraftfahrtbundesamt” (“Federal Motor Transport Authority”, in the official translation) provides monthly statistics on new car registrations broken down to model family and segments. Only in German, and here:
http://www.kba.de/cln_033/nn_125396/DE/Statistik/Fahrzeuge/Neuzulassungen/MonatlicheNeuzulassungen/monatl__neuzulassungen__node.html?__nnn=true
What!!! I always thought the Chevrolet brand is booming in Europe and no one can stop them, not even the Koreans. GM needs to kill Opel/Vauxhall in the near future then most customers will switch to Chevy and everything will be fine again. I’m still sure Chevy is a good substitute for Opel/Vauxhall when it comes to market share and image. Right?
Wrong!!!
@Chevystar:
This is just one month, only on twelfth of a whole year.
Counting the whole year 2012 against 2011, Chevrolet sales in EU27+EFTA dropped only by 2.5%, below the overall shrinking of the market by 7.8%. Opel/Vauxhall sales dropped by 15.6%, more than the aggregate. In absolute numbers: 172,077 Chevrolet in 2012 vs. 176,541 in 2011, and 834,790 Opel/Vauxhall in 2012 vs 989,244 in 2011. Well, in that year to year comparison, the largest drop in sales was registered by GM (US) by 33.5% or … hold your breath … 437 vs 657 cars total (“GM(US)” means non-Korean Chevrolets, Cadillacs and GMC).
Alex, should we now dump Chevrolet in Europe for its sales:D
GM don’t need to dump Vauxhall, Vauxhall is doing just fine with its line up of cars of 3,4,6 & 8 cylinders it caters for everybody from the little 1.0 Agila to the 6.2V8 VXR8 & Maloo. The Omega is rumoured to be coming soon to fit in-between Insignia & VXR8. All Vauxhall needs if any improvements are to be made is a large SUV, Buick’s Enclave would be ideal a new Calibra & Monaro and a VX220 replacement.
Opel could sell a lot more cars in Germany, if they were not always in the negative headlines with GM. Germany, the UK and maybe Italy have always been important markets for Opel.
Don’t underestimate the lure the griffin has in the UK, they’ve tried selling Opel’s here in the 80’s, Chevrolet too has been sold here on 7 different occasions and many other GM brands have came and gone. Don’t get me wrong I love the GM stuff muscle cars especially, the GMC Sierra is a favourite of mine in 3500XL Denali spec with the 6.6L Duramax Diesel & Alison transmission but this stuff is sold only in the US & Middle East & tbh I doubt Vauxhall would be keen on selling it here, their regular 3,4,6 & 8 cylinder cars (what they excel in) are proving popular and no disrespect to Chevrolet my choice is the Vauxhall be it V8, V6, 4 cylinder or tiny 3 cylinder.
@V8 John in other words, you’ll take the rebadged Opel… 🙂
Vauxhall sells stuff Opel don’t (VXR8, Maloo) & Opel sells stuff Vauxhall don’t (Astra sedan, Combo Tour, Vivaro Combi) so they not exactly the same. Also it is now a global not local market so GM cannot just make a car just for one countries needs hence slight differences with Opel. Also noted is the amount of Vauxhalls, Opel’s & Holden’s the US are wanting a few they have or want are listed now Adam, Astra (Verano), Insignia (Regal), VXR8/Commodore (SS), Maloo, Cascada, Mokka (Encore) give or take a few MPV’s & the Corsa that’s Vauxhall’s full range hence the desirability of the marque and its models ;-D
Vauxhall cars are engineerd by Opel in Ruesselsheim and GM UK is also run by the Germans or Adam Opel AG. Vauxhall has no R&D centre therefore you buy the Opels!
Chevrolet atleast has some nice and especially real American cars such as the Cruze, Malibu, Corvette or Trax. GM needs to sell the Commodore as the Chevrolet SS in the UK instead of Vauxhell since the Chevrolet brand is much more appealing to European consumers like in NA.
Chevystar – I’m not sure where you are getting your information from but let me give you a few significant facts about Vauxhall in the UK.
1. GM have an R+D centre at Millbrook and have a team led by Gerry Baker who is Vauxhall’s manager for vehicle dynamics. There is a conversion team based there for Police & Military vehicle requirements.
2. Nearly all Vauxhall’s sold in the UK have a different suspension, damping and steering settings to Opels sold in the rest of Europe and the testing for these is all done at Millbrook.
3. Vauxhall sell more cars in the UK than Chevrolet does in the whole of the rest of Europe combined, in the UK Vauxhall outsells Chevrolet by 27 to 1
4. Vauxhall’s sales are greater than any single market for GM outside America and China.
5. Opel’s image problems in Europe have been discussed at length elsewhere but those problems are not evident in the UK, Vauxhall’s market share is more than double Opel’s share in Germany.
6. The idea that replacing the Vauxhall brand either with Opel or more especially Chevrolet is farcical and will never happen. Chevrolet is a dead duck in Britain and is not even particularly successful in mainland Europe either.
LOL Millbrook is simply a proving ground and according to opel.com where is no real engineering centre in the UK. All the Astras and Insignias are indeed German engineerd. GMs International Development Centre in Russelsheim needs to focus more on Chevrolet in Europe.
http://media.gm.com/media/intl/en/opel/company_opel/ebook.brand_opel.html#/42/zoomed
@David:
How many people do work at Millbrook R&D center? How many of them are engineers with an university education?
I think that the light commercial vehicles Movano and Vivaro which are produced in badge-engineering with Renault are developed on Great Britain, but not passenger vehicles. Right?
According to GM official information, GM’s third largest national market after China and US is Brasil, not the UKoGBaNI. GM is there No 3 by the numbers of vehicles sold behind FIAT and VW, with 45,241 units in January 2013, according to “Carta 321” of the ANFAVEA industry association. Where can I get reliable market statistics for Britain?
Observer7 – I did do an extensive reply to this but for some reason it has been taken down. So much for free speech on here!
Maybe two or more external links? Only one is accepted
Those “nice and especially real American cars such as the Cruze, Malibu, Corvette or Trax” are mostly Korean cars, except the Corvette. You forgot to mention the Sonic/Aveo. All (again except Corvette) developed on platforms for which Opel Rüsselsheim and GM Korea (ex-Daewoo) have the global responsibility.
And I would think that in the development of the current Malibu, the US engineering centers have played an important role because “Malibu” is an iconic nameplate in the USofA.
The few Malibus sold in Europe are imported from Korea.
In what way? Every Vauxhall that’s launched somebody is asking for it to be a Buick. I’m not against this supply & demand just as Vauxhall supply the demand & have done since 1903, a rich heritage of building desirable cars people want to buy and be seen in be it an affordable small runaround, family motor or V8 muscle car.
GM tried to sell Opel’s as Opel’s here without success same with Chevrolet. If they want to sell 12,000 to 15,000 a year and are happy with that that’s fine but a Vauxhall will sell much more, they are the choice in this market no matter how hard it may be to swallow. As for the SS as a Chevy I think not its predecessor the Commodore sold around 15 a year, when badged as Vauxhall they’ve sold thousands over the years. Also Chevy dealers are Vauxhall dealers selling Chevys you do the maths 😉
american ignorance at its best
There is one segment where the Chevrolet car outsells its Opel cousin in Germany (and probably in other European countries as well):
4’868 Chevrolet Captiava
2’200 Opel Antara
2012 in Germany
The Captiva is 39 cm longer than the Antara
maybe the German public thinks a US-SUV must be better than a German one (based on not knowing that the Captiva is also imported from the same Korean factory as the Opel Antara)
It is the same in the UK, I think the answer is simple, Chevrolet are selling the same car as Vauxhall / Opel for 1000s of Euros / £GBP less
The European market is very competitive and a hard market to crack. The 4×4 SUV segment is a market where Land Rover & Range Rover excel, Vauxhall used to have the Frontera the second best selling 4×4. Since then the market has changed Land Rover & Range Rover still excel with Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche & VW all with reasonable selling rivals. Hence why I think Vauxhall needs to sell the Enclave here.
That market has gone now, people prefer car based SUV’s like Mokka, quashqui, Juke or Yeti & full sized ones like Discovery, Q7, X5. Very few buy Antara/Captiva sized cars & just recently Renault, Peugeot & Citroen have give up in this sector. In the Antara’s defence it’s by far the worst griffin badged car having had to put up with a slating by the press more or less saying its not worthy of the Vauxhall badge. Also unlike the Chevrolet it has 5 seats rather than 7.
Regarding “Very few buy Antara/Captiva sized cars” — here are the top 14 “Geländewagen” (SUV, and real 4×4) in the 2012 German new car registration statistics:
55,615 VW TIGUAN
28,982 NISSAN QASHQAI
27,004 BMW X1
25,741 AUDI Q3
25,680 BMW X3
22,246 SKODA YETI
20,167 AUDI Q5
20,138 FORD KUGA
19,218 DACIA DUSTER
19,107 HYUNDAI IX 35
18,776 MERCEDES GLK
14,844 MERCEDES ML-KLASSE
12,511 KIA SPORTAGE
10,641 VW TOUAREG
Clearly led, and outdistanced by the compact-sized VW Tiguan, which is even shorter than the Opel/Vauxhall Antara.
In that statistic, the Chevrolet Captiva ranks 24th, and the Opel Antara 34th.
The Opel Mokka, introduced in the course of 2012, ranks 32nd with 2’562 units over the year (1’033 units in the single month January 2013, against 70 Opel Antara and 250 Chevrolet Captiva).
I forgot to mention: those top 14 are the ones with more than 10’000 units new car registrations in 2012.
Tiguan then is Mokka sized so as I said Vauxhall needs a full sized SUV to take on the Tourag, the Enclave with its 3.6L V6 and a 2.8TD say sauced from another GM subsidiary would fill that gap.