In April, sales statistics confirmed that the car market in Poland is resisting from downturn pressure received by negative economic. The market was flat from April 2012. While top of ranking brands had lost share, Renault, Mercedes and Honda grew up.
Strong sales in April for car makers operating in Canada, as the market grew 8.9%, one of the best y.o.y. performances in the last two years. While Ford was stable on top, Toyota improved share at 10.5%, expanding the gap on Chevrolet.
April gave a bit hope at the automotive sector in Croatia, breaking over one years of decline. However year-to-date sales volume was more than one third lower than in the previous year. Volkswagen, Citroen and Audi posted remarkable performance.
Following the January boom, in February 2013 the global automotive market slipped 3% hit by Chinese market seasonality. Toyota was helped by lower Chinese weight with share pushed up. BMW was back on top of Premium while Renault failed challenging Fiat position among Top 10.
U.K. Car Market continued the strong growth from March into April with an increase of nearly 15% over April 2012. Year-to-date April sales were up 8.9%, the year-on-year increase in Europe. Audi was up to 4th position, while Fiat 500 advanced in 8th place.
The significant month of April, with the seasonal effect of the Holy Week and Ester are already discount, gave a further positive verdict over the Mexican market outlook. Sales were up 19.5%, with year to date ended up by 9.0%. Ford posted a strong month with share at 8.6%
Breaking one year of losses, in April the Romanian car market was finally positive surging 21.7% from last year. However, year-to-date sales wert down 9.8%. Pushed by strong sales on Focus and Fiesta, Ford significantly improved its share.
Seat boomed sales in April keeping back the market leadership lost in early 2012. It was too early to correlate this fact with Mr. Muir replacement as company CEO, but not to boost Spanish car sales by 10%, second positive month out of last fifteen.
April was really positive for the car market in Israel, with sales soared 20.0% from last year. Following the declining first quarter, the market recovered and year-to-date sales were up 2.1%. Toyota and Mazda posted an awful performance.
Following nine y.o.y. declining months out of last ten, in April the Argentinian car market posted a robust growth, with sales up 36.1% from last year. Thanks to this wonderful performance the year-to-date market was positive by 4.9%. Ecosport pushed Ford in second place.
April 2013 confirmed the new trend for the Portuguese car market, now stabilized after years of decline. April sales fell 4.4%, but year-to-date they were up 0.8% from last year. Volkswagen outpaced again Renault for the market leadership.
French car sales slipped 5.3% in April, slowing their year-on year decline compared to March when the fall reached 16.4%. Year-to-date sales were down 12.3%. In spite of Captur success, Renault has lost share from Q1. Strong performance for Audi and Dacia.
Involved in the European economic recession, the Czech car market fell again in April, when sales dropped 9.4% from the previous year. The data was a bit better than the previous quarter. Skoda recovered the 30% of market share, while Fiat tumbled down at 1.2%.
Following a series of 5 declining month, in April the domestic car market in Germany was back up, for a modest 3.8%, driven by an additional selling day compared with last year. Year-to-date sales slipped 8.5%. All Japanese had lost share.
Starting the new fiscal year, Japanese Automakers aggressively approached sales activity and the car market in Taiwan recovered after a low first quarter. Sales were up 0.8% from last year, but increased orders portfolio will benefit next months.
The light passenger vehicles market momentum continues in South Africa and April was reported up 19.4% with first four month performance positive by 5.1%. Volkswagen and Chevrolet improved share while Nissan and Land Rover had lost.
In April, Indian car market negative momentum went on with a decline of 8.6% and a cumulate loss of 11.3%. In addition, the market was hit by an increase of 10% of the already huge excise duty on SUV models.
Pushed by private consumer's demand, Australian car market grew 7.7% in April 2013 with a first four months growth of 5.6% from last year. Holden recovered the second place, while Ford performed a robust share increase.
In April new car sales in Italy were down again by 9.3%, but SAAR had shown a significant increase from the previous month. Following 60 days of discussions, a large political coalition created a Government, born focusing on economic recovery. The first step in a new era?
Recovering from a negative March performance, the Norwegian car market boomed 28.6% in April 2013 with year-to-date sales again positive, by 4.4%. Nissan Leaf further advanced in the model ranking, being second behind the unachievable Golf.