On a global scale, Chevrolet sales have increased 4 percent annually so far. Yet in Europe, things seem to be trending in the opposite direction, tumbling 33 percent, with 45,706 units sold.
Chevy, being the value-oriented brand that it is recognized as across the world, is seeing major declines in its small vehicle sales over in Europe. According to Automotive News, European sales of the Matiz/Spark mini car has dropped 37 percent to 12,245 units through April of 2013. Meanwhile the Aveo (Sonic in North America) has fallen an even steeper 44 percent to 10,235 units in the same time frame. On the flip side, brands like Dacia and Kia have seen significant gains in Europe.
Analysts predict that it has to do mostly with Chevy’s aging European lineup, which also lags behind in fuel efficiency as a brand. To note, the Spark’s been in Europe since early 2010, while the Aveo is slightly younger, yet both have seen minimal changes. What the analysts failed to explain however is the slight sales rise of the Cruze, which is actually older than both of the small Chevy models.
While serious changes seem urgent, analysts expect that the market won’t see a major overhaul of Chevy’s products until what’s expected to be 2016.
Comments
With the way GM has been in Europe out side of Opel I really wonder who they are using to market cars there. Often it looks like they are so out of touch with the Euro buyers. What they want is not the same as what the guy in Cleveland wants.
Terrible analysis! They are so documented those analysts who do not know that the increase in sales of the Cruze is because, unlike the first months of 2012, sales of this year include the Station Wagon variant which began selling in the second half of the year past.
And predicting that sales will continue to fall until 2016 seem to forget the arrival of a major new product: Trax, the most important release this year Chevrolet in Europe, that has enough potential to become the new star of Chevy in the old continent.
Dude the Trax is just an uglier, cheapened Opel Mokka. (As when on sale in the US it would be the cheap alternative to the Buick Encore)
For the same money you can have an Opel Mokka, Peugeot 2008, Renault Captur or Nissan Juke. The Trax will fail as is priced way too high.
The real problem is that Chevrolets are priced almost the same as Peugeot, Ford, Opel, Renault, Citroën, Fiat, Seat, VW, KIA, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi, while the brand perception is equal to Dacia’s. Europeans see Chevy as rebadged Daewoos.
GM started selling Opel Mokka first instead of Chevrolet Trax. Trax could have been the first really well selling Chevrolet in Europe but after 100000 Mokkas already sold, it’s too late now.
Opel/Vauxhall is selling more Mokka´s in Europe because it is still a well established brand and with around 1,000,000 sales every year Opel/Vauxhall has also loyal fans and costumers. What do you mean with too late? Nothing is too late, if you have the right sense for the business. VW was very late with the Tiguan, which is now the best selling compact SUV in most European markets. However, it shouldn´t be in the interest for GM that its brand cannibalize each other! No matter if the Mokka or the Trax was first on the market. But a value-oriented brand don´t need an expensive electric car. Why is GM selling exactly the same cars (Ampera and Volt) in Europe? I am also disappointed about the Mokka and Trax, because these cars are too similar with minor exterior changes similar to the Antara and Captiva. However, the Astra and Cruze are very different, eg engines, quality etc..
I mean that instead of selling first Chevrolets they sold these Chevrolets as Opels. Little SUVs are very popular and Trax could have been the brake trough model for Chevrolet in Europe . After selling the first 100000 Traxes as Opel Mokkas, it doesn’t look good any more.
Why is the Opel Mokka a Chevy Trax when in reality it is the other way around? It was engineerd by Opel in Ruesselsheim and Opel has announced plans to built a Mini SUV based on the Corsa in 2007 or 2008. Neither GM nor Opel have thought of a big success of the Mokka in Europe and this might be the reason why GM brought a Chevy version of it to the market and produces both versions in South Korea to better use economies of scale in the manufacturing cost. But with 100,000 sales the Mokka can do without a Chevy version since it shares also many parts with the Corsa, Meriva, Adam and other Opel vehicles.
Chevrolet Trax (Opel Mokka) is based on the GM Gamma II platform and is manufactured in GM Korea Bupyeong plant, which is known of building small Chevrolet vehicles. Opel Mokka is just a rebadged Chevrolet and nothing else.
I see significant differences between the two cars, far from the one being just a rebadge of the other (though I have yet to see a Trax in the wild).
Or do you think that the Chevrolet Malibu is just a rebadged Insignia?
Chevys problem in Europe lies deeper than its cars, you could replace them all with new models & yet in time they would all date again (most are upto date anyway) & besides EVERY manufacture has to solder on with an older product that’s due for replacement & they sell ok, also Suzuki for example can sell out of date models Alto, Splash, SX4, Jimny, Grand Vitara & that Jetta sized saloon that I’ve forgot it’s name, although like Chevy they do so at a loss. The Trax in my opinion is a rebadged Mokka & I’d take the Mokka (btw to suggest a niche manufacture in Europe should launch in the up and coming segment before the main player is madness) truth is Europe is over crowded with manufactures GM needs to concentrate on its strongest hand Vauxhall & Opel.
Chevrolet don´t lose market share because of its aging models. The Chevrolet Aveo is only two years old and they´ve also expanded the Cruze family with new body styles such as a wagon or hatchback. GM is not able to give Chevrolet a reasonable Image here in Europe so that Chevrolet stands out from the crowd, especially KIA, Skoda and Hyundai make it difficult for Chevy not Opel/Vauxhall! Again Chevrolet does not cannibalize the sales of Opel and the other way around. Opels main competitors are Volkswagen, Ford and partly the compact cars from Audi and Co. Just take a look at the Opel Adam and Chevy Spark both cars are placed in the same segment but target completely different groups of costumers. Those who want a cheap little car (KIA Picanto, Hyundai i10,…) and the others who want a lifestyle vehicle (FIAT 500 or MINI). Should VW stop selling the Audi A3, Skoda Octavia and SEAT Leon, because of its Golf? Most Europeans don´t only buy a car but also the Image of the manufacturer at the same time. A brand which is selling the cheapest cars in its class don´t need a Image (See Dacia). BTW Volkwagen is selling a 10 years old Compact MPV (VW Touran) and is still market leader in this segment, while Opel is losing a lot of Zafira Tourer sales. The Zafira Tourer is since 2011 on the market.
As to the Cruze — I have yet not seen a Cruze hatchback in the wild, but according to the photos which I have seen, it is a very good looking car. Also the station wagon looks good.
This might explain to some extent that the Cruze sales are increaing.
Please also note the Orlando — this is also selling quite well, it seems. I see quite a number of them as taxis here in Frankfurt/Main.
Besides these ruminations, it is very difficult to find out why the sales numbers evolve like they do.
In the case of Chevrolet, there might also be a kind of identity crisis of the brand, which started as a simple rebading Daewoo cars as Chevrolets, being perceived as another Korean cheap brand, and which is lowling being recognized as an US-American brand, creating confusion about it being a cheap Korean, or a strange US-American car. US cars are expected to be those wide barges, or muscle cars like the Corvette or the Pickups. But small cars from the USA? That is new, and needs to be digested first.
BTW, the German KBA (Kraftfahrtbundesamt – Federal Automobive Agency) publishing the new car registration statistics, has given up on the general “GM” brand and now grouped the US Chevrolets (Camaro, Corvette) with the Korean Chevrolets as Chevrolets, and is counting Cadillac as another brand.
The opputunity to sell Chevys in Europe came about in the 60’s & 70’s it wasn’t took up. Then in the 80’s a fantastic opputunity. We had to wait for the mid to late 90’s by which time it was too late as many of the segments was sewn up by rivals. Each company in Europe has a model or range that’s well liked & reasons for it being liked. Matiz was a bad move for Chevy. As for the future many Japanise brands are struggling in Europe & may/may not be considering withdrawing from Europe altogether, with this in mind & with no currant European market for Kei cars (only negative is little profit in them) wouldn’t it be an idea to partner a Japanise manufacture (Mitsubishi, Suzuki for examples) & sell Kei cars under the Chevy banner in Europe, keeping seperate dealers from upmarket Vauxhall & Opel. This range would complement Spark, Aveo & Cruze.
GM1652 that’s why a Chevy version of the Mokka could be dangerous for the image of Vauxhall & Opel. The Mokka is widely known as a Corsa SUV because that’s what it is, developed by Opel & not GM Korea (one of the tell tale signs its a proper Vauxhall & Opel is the petrol cap is in the same place as other Vauxhall & Opel’s, unlike Antara & Agila which are Korean & Japanise).
http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/09/25/preview-2013-chevy-trax-has-corvette-dna/
“The Trax has been a global collaboration for General Motors, with the styling handled primarily in the U.S. The engineering has been developed by GM’s Korean division, while the European engineering team was responsible for the vehicle’s driveability.”
“the European engineering team was responsible for the vehicle’s driveability” … of the Mokka/Encore, that is. Opel engineers in Rüsselsheim did the work.
I have never before heard that this work also encompassed the Chevy version, only the Mokka/Encore.
Does this Canadian paper have any credible sources for the claim that the Trax chassis did also profit from the engineering work in Germany applied to the twins Buick Encore and Opel/Vauxhall Mokka? I doubt it.
Just typed in Opel Mokka Wikipedia, they tell it as it is – perhaps people are getting confused with the Korean Antara/Captiva car.
I compiled the data of the May new car registrations in Germany for the Chevrolet brand from 2008 to the current year 2013, and will try to insert it here as a table. I don’t know yet if that will work; if not, I could mail it to Katakis or Luft for them to make it really visible.
New car registrations in Germany CHEVROLET in May of year
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
Total new car registrations
2303
2872
3421
1451
3149
2134
Market share
0,88%
0,99%
1,12%
0,58%
0,82%
0,78%
Change year-to-year
-19,81%
-16,05%
135,77%
-53,92%
47,56%
-8.80%
By dealer or vendor
1151
1559
1113
718
435
1330
% of month total
49,98%
54,28%
32,53%
49,48%
13,81%
62,32%
by rental companies (and leasing??)
47
350
890
108
203
84
% of month total
2,04%
12,19%
26,02%
7,44%
6,45%
3,94%
other commercial units
176
224
335
123
62
127
% of month total
7,64%
7,80%
9,79%
8,48%
1,97%
5,95%
private buyers
929
739
1083
502
2449
593
% of month total
40,34%
25,73%
31,66%
34,60%
77,77%
27,79%
The table shows the total numbers, the market share, the year-to-year change of the total number compared to the same month of the previus year, and the numbers of the four categories of registrants: private buyers (last two rows), the Chevrolet dealers and Chevrolet Germany company (top), car rental companies (I don’t know if this includes leasing) and other non-private buyers.
Of interest will be the year 2009, with a nearly 50% increase compared to the previous year, and a share of 77.77% of the private buyers. This is the effect of the scrappage program organized by the German government to counter the economic crises of 2008, but which mainly helped the cheapo car importers like Dacia, Chevrolet, Skoda and others. And of course, the sales dropped dramatically the following year.
The best year for the Chevrolet brand in that sequence is 2011, but with more than half of all new car registrations done by Chevrolet itself and their dealers, plus nearly 900 cars registered by car rental companies, the highest number in those six years (May only, to remind you).
For the May of the current year 2013, you may see that sales to private buyers did not drop so significantly, but sales to rental companies dropped to the lowest figure of all those six years.
As a side note, in this year the government agency collecting those statistics included the US Chevrolet cars with the Korean ones which until then were the only ones being counted as Chevrolet (resp. Daewoo until 2003 or 2004).
Hm, that did not really work out with the statistics as table … what is shown here as colums should be read as rows,
Chevrolet has already withdrawn from the Republic of Ireland market!