8.3.2006
Market Snapshot: Best-ever February for Saab in Europe

In February 2006, GM was able to increase vehicle sales of its brands in total Europe to over 135,400 units, an increase of 1.6 percent over the year-ago period. The total market increased by 3.7 percent, to 1,496,494 units, last month. Therefore, GM's February market share slightly decreased from 9.2 percent in 2005 to 9.1 percent this year.

Jonathan Browning, GME Vice President, Sales & Marketing, said: "Our sales volume is growing steadily. We are particularly pleased about the rapid development at Chevrolet and Saab set another record volume in February. For Opel and Vauxhall, we have concentrated on improving revenue and product mix, emphasizing the quality rather than quantity of sales. This will be the pattern for 2006.”

Saab achieved its best-ever February sales results in Europe. With 5,554 units sold, the Swedish brand registered an increase of 31 percent over the year-earlier period. Saab's market share in total Europe increased from 0.3 percent in February last year to 0.4 percent last month. In its home market of Sweden, Saab saw a 26 percent gain (1,722 units sold). Market share in Sweden climbed from 6.2 to 7.9 percent. The U.K. was Saab's second-largest market in Europe. Sales there increased by more than 15 percent, to 838 units. Saab was able to increase its sales significantly in all Western and Central European countries.

Opel/Vauxhall sales in Europe decreased by 1.4 percent, to 106,789 units (market share declined from 7.5 percent in February 2005 to 7.1 percent last month). In Germany, Opel sales increased by more than 4.3 percent, to 24,033 units. Market share in February reached 9.9 percent (up from 9.7 percent in February 2005). With 22,172 passenger cars sold and a market share of 10.3 percent, Opel was able to maintain its number-two position in the German passenger-car market. Vauxhall sold a total of 13,861 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in the U.K. last month (down from 14,706 units in the year-ago period). The Corsa and Zafira both topped their segment sales charts in the U.K. Opel also saw strong sales increases in the Ukraine (+ 158 percent vs. February 2005), Russia (+ 42 percent), Austria (+ 31 percent), Switzerland (+29 percent), Denmark (+23 percent), Ireland (+ 22 percent), Turkey (+ 12 percent) and Poland (+ 4 percent).

Chevrolet posted strongly rising sales in Europe in the first two months of 2006. In February, Chevrolet sold 19,660 cars versus 16,040 in February 2005 (plus 22.6 percent). Chevrolet's market share rose from 1.11 to 1.31 percent in total Europe last month. The highest growth rate in February was recorded in Russia, where sales increased from 938 units to over 3,200 units (+ 243 percent vs. February 2005). In all of Central and Eastern Europe, sales grew by 34 percent. Outstanding February results were recorded in Spain (+ 55 percent), Italy (+ 52 percent), Portugal (+ 44 percent), Belgium (+ 34 percent) and Greece (plus 47 percent). In the Ukraine, Chevrolet achieved a market share of over 9.8 percent in February.

Sales of vehicles built by GM/AVTOVAZ declined by 37.5 percent, to around 2,550 units.