New Products Drive Ford of Europe Sales Increase in April; Overall Market Share and Retail Share Improve

• Ford April sales volume increased by 3 per cent year over year in Ford’s traditional 19 European markets driven by strong demand for new products
• Ford’s market share for April totalled 7.7 per cent, up slightly compared to April 2012
• Ford’s passenger car retail market share in its five major Western European markets rose to 8.2 per cent in April, up 1.2 percentage points versus a year ago (preliminary data)*
• Ford’s commercial vehicle share was 9.1 per cent in April, up 1.9 percentage points – the best April commercial vehicle share for Ford in the Euro 19 region since 1998
• New products driving sales increase include B-MAX, Kuga, Transit Custom and Ranger
• European product acceleration continues. Launches this year include all-new Fiesta ST, Focus Electric, Transit Connect, Tourneo Connect, and EcoSport

COLOGNE, Germany, May 16, 2013 – Ford of Europe reported today that its sales increased in April by 3 per cent year-over-year driven by strong demand for new products.

Ford sold 93,000 vehicles in its 19 traditional European markets in April, up 3 per cent over April 2012. Ford’s overall market share rose by 0.1 percentage point to 7.7 per cent in the month.

Ford also saw significant increases in two important areas of the European market: passenger car retail market share – vehicles purchased by private customers – and commercial vehicle market share.

Passenger car retail share in the five major Western European markets in April totalled 8.2 per cent, up 1.2 percentage points versus April 2012 (preliminary data*). Commercial vehicle share was 9.1 per cent, up 1.9 percentage points, the best April share for Ford in the Euro 19 region since 1998.

“We have continued to invest heavily in new product launches throughout the economic downturn, which helped us increase sales in April in a very challenging market,” said Roelant de Waard, vice president, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe. “Importantly, we significantly increased retail sales -- the key to building a healthy, growing brand -- while also reducing daily rental and short cycle sales.”

New products drove Ford’s increase in April

New products and better availability of large cars drove Ford’s sales increase. The new B-MAX multi-activity vehicle surpassed 7,000 sales in April and 25,000 sales in the first four months of the year. According to preliminary external industry data, B-MAX was Europe’s best-selling small MAV in the first quarter.

Fiesta was the best-selling small car in Europe in the first quarter**. Retail share in that period was at 12.3 per cent in its segment, up 0.4 percentage points. The new Fiesta ST performance car is off to a strong start, with 3,000 orders since first going on sale.

Sales of the new Kuga SUV continue to be strong, with total Kuga sales of 5,400 units in April, up 15 per cent year-on-year. Ford recently announced plans to increase Kuga production in Valencia to meet strong demand.

Also, sales of large passenger cars – Mondeo, S-MAX and Galaxy – rose to 10,600 units in April from 5,700 in March, following the resumption of normal working at Ford’s Genk plant in Belgium.

Ford sold 16,000 commercial vehicles in April, up by 27 per cent versus April 2012, driven by strong demand for Transit, Transit Custom as well as Ranger.

Selected Country Data

In the UK, Ford retained total vehicle sales leadership for both April and year-to-date, with a sales increase of 15.1 per cent in April. Ford’s market share in the UK for April totalled 14.9 per cent. Germany, Ford’s second largest market by sales, also saw significant gains in April and was up by 6.1 per cent. Market share improved by 0.2 percentage points to 6.9 per cent.

Turkey saw April sales of 9,500 – an increase of 14.9 per cent year-on-year, the third largest market for Ford in Europe by volume for the month.

Italy was Ford’s fourth-largest market in Europe by sales volume in April, with sales rising by 10.3 per cent, and market share up 1.5 percentage points to 7.6 per cent.

Across its wider European region of 51 markets, Ford sold 116,000 vehicles in April, up 0.3 per cent.

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* UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain. Including preliminary data for Italy. See table further down. Ford volume in these markets represents 80% of the Europe 19 volume.

** According to the latest figures from the provider of automotive data and intelligence, JATO Dynamics. April data not available yet.

 Notes to Editors:

• Ford of Europe's market share refers to the 19 European markets (Euro 19) - excluding Russia, Turkey and Romania (as the other main markets) and excluding the 29 European Direct Markets (EDM), where we base our share on non-domestic sales volume and hence no total industry share figures are available. Sales data (reference: registrations) for specific car lines refer to Euro 19.
• We also report our sales performance (passenger cars and commercial vehicles) for the total region for which Ford of Europe is responsible (51 markets in total), here however as retail sales (as total industry registrations numbers are not available).
• The Euro 19 markets are: Austria, Belgium, Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Ford reports sales for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania through our Finnish National Sales Company, so sales data for the Baltic states is also included within Euro 19.
• EDM 29 or European Direct Markets are Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Gibraltar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
• Retail share referenced in this release are preliminary and refer to key European markets UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. These five markets represent approximately 80 per cent of private customer purchases of the Euro 19 market region.

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Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 175,000 employees and 65 plants worldwide, the company’s automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.ford.com.

Ford of Europe is responsible for producing, selling and servicing Ford brand vehicles in 50 individual markets and employs approximately 47,000 employees at its wholly owned facilities and approximately 69,000 people when joint ventures and unconsolidated businesses are included. In addition to Ford Motor Credit Company, Ford Europe operations include Ford Customer Service Division and 24 manufacturing facilities (15 wholly owned or consolidated joint venture facilities and nine unconsolidated joint venture facilities). The first Ford cars were shipped to Europe in 1903 – the same year Ford Motor Company was founded. European production started in 1911.