Italy April 2015: Fiat 500X in Top 10

The Fiat 500X is now among Italy’s 10 most popular nameplates.

* See the Top 44 All-brands and Top 50 models by clicking on the title *

The sky is getting clearer and clearer for the Italian car market, seeing is year-on-year growth accelerate once again in April: from +11% in January to +13% in February and +15% in March to +24% this month at 149.054 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 581.365 units, up 16% on 2014. Even more encouraging is the 28% year-on-year gain of private sales, outsmarting the market at last, returning to levels of 3 years ago at 90.467 sales and gaining two percentage share points on April 2014 at 60.2%. However local association UNRAE points out that this surge in private sales was triggered by particularly aggressive promotions during April and is not sustainable in the long term without government help in the form of tax reductions or scrappage schemes.

Renault Clio

Local behemoth Fiat evolves very similarly to the market at +22%, thus holding onto a strong 21.8% market share, Volkswagen underperforms at #2 and 7.7% (+18%) and Renault soars 71% year-on-year to land in 3rd place with 7.2% share. Peugeot (+32%), Dacia (+62%), Smart (+67%), Seat (+72%), Volvo (+78%), Subaru (+85%), Lexus (+161%) and of course Jeep (+254%) also shine. Model-wise, the Fiat Panda continues to gain market share in pole position (+33%), the Fiat Punto enjoys a sudden regain of form (+29%) hitting #2, its best ranking so far in 2015, the Renault Clio (+83%) outsells both the Fiat 500 (-5%) and 500L (-21%) at #4, the latter two seemingly impacted by the tremendous success of the Fiat 500X, now inside the Top 10 at #10 with 3.256 units sold while the Jeep Renegade stabilises at #16 with 2.233 deliveries.

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Original March post: Italy March 2015: Fiat 500X now inside Top 20

One year ago: Italy April 2014: Fiat 500L confirms #2 spot, passes Punto year-to-date

Full April 2015 Top 44 All-brands and Top 50 models below.