UK market leader Ford increased CV sales and share, recording growth in October’s CV market as sales of the all-new Fiesta reinforced its leadership of total vehicle, car and commercial vehicle markets.
According to the official October sales figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT):
- Ford is the UK market leader in total vehicle, car and CV sales
- Fiesta is UK best-seller; Transit Custom first in CV and sixth in total vehicle charts
- Transit range is second in UK total vehicle sales
- Ford has five models in the UK Top 20 – Fiesta (1st), Focus (3rd), Transit Custom (6th), Kuga (11th) and Transit (14th)
Andy Barratt, Ford of Britain chairman and managing director, said: “Ford continues to carry strong sales momentum as we more to the end of the year. Our CV sales continue to grow and it’s particularly rewarding to see the all-new Fiesta strengthening its leadership position as we continue the launch of the full model range.
“Fiesta is being well received and we’ll see the model range joined by Vignale and ST-Line this year. Fiesta Active and ST are still to come to complete the line-up of our most technologically advanced Fiesta ever.”
The official figures released by the SMMT today show that total car sales in October were down 12.2 per cent to 158,192 units, compared with October 2016. Ford car sales performed better than the market with 19,270 sales as Fiesta was once again the UK best-seller. For the year to date (end October) total UK car sales were 2,224,603, down 4.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2016. Ford car sales for this period were 253,760 some 74,628 registrations ahead of its nearest rival.
Ford is the clear leader in retail car sales, which most accurately reflect the preferences of private buyers. At 14.3 per cent, Ford’s October retail car sales share was 4.7 percentage points ahead of its nearest rival, and for the year to date, Ford’s retail car sales share was 11.7 per cent, a lead of 4.1 percentage points.
The Ford Fiesta notched up 7,256 sales in October and with total registrations of 83,070 for the year to date, the Fiesta is the UK best seller by a significant margin – 20,505 sales and 1.1 percentage points of market share ahead of its nearest competitor.
The JS SUV segment continued to grow, up 6.3 per cent in October. Kuga registrations in October were 2,493, up 16.9 per cent, compared with October 2016, and sales for the year to date of 33,924 are up 8.2 per cent, compared with the same period in 2016.
UK commercial vehicle sales in October were down 7.4 per cent at 24,968, compared with October 2016. At 7,853, total sales of Ford CVs were up 3.0 per cent, compared with October 2016. For the year to date, total UK CV sales were down 3.5 per cent at 318,664, compared with the same period in 2016. Total sales of Ford CVs for the year to date were up 2.1 per cent at 97,767, compared with 2016.
Ford commercial vehicle market share continues to increase, standing at 31.2 per cent for October, up from 27.8 per cent in October 2016. For the year to date, Ford CV share increased from 30.6 per cent to 32.1per cent, compared with the same period in 2016.
