COLOGNE, Germany – Strong demand for the all-new Focus, C-MAX and the Transit helped Ford increase sales by 6.6 per cent in June to 151,700 units across the 51 European region markets.

In the traditional 19 Western European markets, Ford sales in June increased by 0.1 per cent, despite a 7.4 per cent decline in overall industry sales. As a result, Ford’s market share in June increased by 0.6 percentage points to 8.5 per cent.

For the first half of 2011, Ford sold 836,000 units in the 51 European markets, up 1.7 per cent or 14,100 units compared to first half of 2010. In the traditional 19 markets, Ford sold 689,800 new Ford vehicles in the first half of 2011, a reduction of 3.8 per cent from the same period last year.
 
In both June and in the first six months of 2011, Ford was Europe’s No.2 best-selling car brand. 

“We had a strong June and we continue to gain momentum,” said Roelant de Waard, vice president, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe. “We gained sales and market share largely on the strength of our new product, particularly the new Focus and C-MAX.”

Model and market sales highlights

The recently-launched Focus continues to gain sales momentum. Sales in June reached 25,100 units -- up from 12,000 in April and 18,000 in May -- the best June for the Focus since 2008. Since going on sale in mid-March, the Focus has sold 68,600 units.

Sales of the all-new C-MAX have reached 78,500 since it was launched late last year, including 10,200 in June, the best June for C-MAX since 2008. In Germany, C-MAX sales were up 134 per cent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year.
 
Registrations of the Ford Galaxy and S-MAX models in the traditional 19 European markets jumped 21.1 per cent and 12.5 per cent in the first half of 2011, respectively. 

Ford sales in June in the European region growth markets continued to gain momentum. Sales of Ford vehicles in Russia, Turkey and Eastern Europe rose by 31, 55 and 27 per cent, respectively.

Since its market debut in October 2008, 1,278,800 customers have purchased the current version Fiesta around the world, with more than 1,170,000 Fiestas having been sold in Europe. In June, 32,600 Fiestas were delivered to customers across Europe.

Transit sales of 12,900 units were up by 100 units on June 2010, or an increase of 1.7 per cent. This was the largest June volume for Transit since 2008. 

In Russia, June sales totalled 12,900 units, up 31.2 per cent or 3,100 units from 2010. Russia also was the No.1 country for Ford in Europe for Mondeo sales, with 1,700 units sold in June, approximately 20 per cent of all European Mondeo sales in the month.

Ford's operations in Turkey reported a June sales gain of 55 per cent to 14,400 units, up by 5,100 units versus the same month last year. In the first half of 2011, Ford posted a 53 per cent sales gain in Turkey, with an increase in sales of 23,400 units to 67,600 units – a record first half sales volume for Ford in the country.

In its strongest European market by volume, the United Kingdom, Ford achieved a 14.6 per cent share in June, up 1.3 percentage points compared to June 2010.

Ford sales in Germany during June were 23,100 units, up 2,500 units or 12.3 per cent on June. Ford's market share in Germany was 7.4 per cent, up 0.8 percentage points.   Germany's year-to-date June 2011 volume grew to 131,100 units, up 19.4 per cent, or 21,300 units.
 
Ford retained market leadership in June in the UK, Denmark, Ireland, Hungary and Turkey, and continued to be year-to-date market leader in the UK, Denmark, Hungary and Turkey. Ford also was the top imported brand in Italy and the Czech Republic for June and year-to-date. Ford increased its June market share in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Turkey.

Highest June market share gains in Ford's 19 traditional markets were in Denmark (up 2.7 percentage points to 13.6 per cent) – the best June market share for Ford in the country since 1994), Belgium (up 2 percentage points to 7.2 per cent) and Austria (up 1.4 percentage points to 7.0 per cent).