"This is a great performance in a very difficult year for the European auto industry," John Fleming, Ford of Europe CEO said in a release. "Our achievement in growing our market share – and especially the success of the Ford Fiesta, Europe's No.2 best-selling car overall – highlights the importance of continuing to invest in new and exciting products for our customers even in the midst of the economic downturn."
In 2009, Ford sold 1,439,900 vehicles in its 19 European markets, meaning a total increase of 0.2 percent. This may seem little, but the growth was registered while the entire European market decreased by 4.8 percent. Year-to-date sales in Ford's Euro 51 zone (51 countries) stand at 1,654,600 vehicles, a drawback of 7.1 percent compared to 2008.
"While our revenue was down compared to 2008 due to the difficult market conditions, our share improvement and quality of sales were a significant positive offset," Ingvar Sviggum, marketing, sales and service vice president added. "61 per cent of our new car sales were to retail customers in 2009 – This is up from 48 per cent in 2008."
For 2010, Ford has high aim set high, with the refreshed Ford Galaxy and Ford S-MAX expected to join the Fiesta in the front lines of sales.
"2010 will be another tough year for the European auto industry, especially given the ending and phase-out of some of the key scrappage schemes in Western Europe. We will continue to build on our product momentum in 2010 and beyond. In fact, we're entering one of the most prolific periods of new product and technology introductions in Ford of Europe's history, with 11 new product actions this year alone", Fleming concluded.
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