Fiat, Toyota and Ford Continue Decline in Europe

Fiat, Toyota and Ford, three of the largest carmakers selling cars in Europe, are struggling to deal with very low sales on the Old Continent as January was reportedly their 10th consecutive month at the end of which they posted significant sales drop. Each of the three were massively affected by the fact that governments in Europe scrapped incentives and bonuses offered for those who opted for small and fuel efficient vehicles.

At this time, only two countries across Europe, Romania and Ireland, are still offering buying incentives or trade-in schemed for new cars, a report by Bloomberg shows.

ACEA, the European carmaker association, revealed that sales in Europe dropped 1.1 points last month to 1.07 million vehicles, with Fiat posting a decrease of 20 percent last month. Toyota's sales fell 11 percent, while Ford posted a drop of 9 points.

“Vehicle markets are still coming under pressure for a variety of reasons -- payback from scrapping schemes, doubts about economies, job security worries,” Ian Fletcher, an IHS Automotive analyst in London, was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source.

As a comparison, Volkswagen is one of the few companies across Europe that managed to post sales increases at the end of January. The company whose aim is to become the world's number one carmaker by 2018 sold a total of 227,212 vehicles last month, which translates into a 6 percent rise and a market share increase from 20.6 to 22.1 points.

On the other hand, sales of PSA Peugeot Citroen fell 3.6 points in January to just 145,472 vehicles, while Renault experienced a drop of 4.8 points to 110,132 units.