Strong Ford S-MAX Sales Fuel Increased European Market Share for Ford in January

Strong Ford S-MAX Sales Fuel Increased European Market Share for Ford in January

* Total Ford blue oval market share up to 9.0 per cent
* Retail sales up 10,400 or 8.0 per cent
* Commercial vehicle sales rise by 15.6 per cent

COLOGNE, February 15, 2007 – Strong sales of the new Ford S-MAX, winner of the 2007 Car of the Year title, fuelled further growth in Ford's European market share for January. Total Ford vehicle retails in January were 140,000, up 10,400 units versus January 2006 to give Ford of Europe a market share of 9.0 per cent.

Sales in January of the Ford S-MAX were 7,100. Together with the Ford Galaxy, Ford sold 8,400 people movers, more than triple the 2,400 Galaxy retails in January 2006.

There were strong results as well for Ford's commercial vehicle range, with the Transit, 'Van of the Year 2007', achieving some 16,100 registrations in January, a 22 per cent increase over last year.

In total the company sold more than 25,000 commercial vehicles in January, 3,500 or 15.6 per cent more than in January 2006.

Ford's largest European market was again Britain. With sales there up by 9.5 per cent to 34,700, Ford reported a market share of 18.2 per cent.

In January, Ford also increased its sales in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Poland, Greece and Hungary.

With 8,300 units in Ireland, Ford total vehicle sales figures for January were the highest monthly figures ever recorded in that country.

"We're very pleased to see our sales and market share increase as we begin 2007. Our January performance was once again driven by our small cars and commercial vehicles and was stimulated especially by very high levels of showroom traffic generated by our Car of the Year winner, S-MAX. We expect our sales to receive an additional boost with the launch of the new Mondeo later in the year," said Stephen Odell, Ford of Europe vice president for marketing, sales and service.

Ford's sales data includes both passenger cars and commercial vehicles from its 21 major Euro-pean Sales Companies, including Russia and Turkey. Market share excludes Russia.


Source: Ford Motor Company‹ previous  •  2769 of 12885  •  next ›