Italy October 2020: Fiat (+18%), Suzuki (+39.7%), Skoda (+34.3%), private sales (+11.4%) headline stabilised market (-0.3%)

The Suzuki Ignis secures a second consecutive – and ever – Top 20 finish.

After sporting their first year-on-year gain of 2020 in September (+9.8%), new car sales in Italy stabilise in October at -0.3% to 158.250. The year-to-date tally is now down -30.7% year-on-year to 1.131.466 units. We are adjusting our 2020 Forecast for Italy slightly down from 1.43 million units (-25%) to 1.42 million (-26%). Private sales are the hero of the month again at +11.4% to 107.263 units and 67.8% share vs. 60.6% in October 2019. Fleet sales drop -4.8% to 28.256 and 17.9% share vs. 18.7% a year ago, including 3.354 short-term rentals (+19.1%) and 21.820 long-term leases (-7.1%) while company sales are off a cliff at -30.6% to 22.731 including 14.912 self-registrations (-37.9%). Year-to-date, private sales are off -23.4% to 718.083 and 65.5% vs. 57.4% over the same period in 2019, fleet sales are down -37.5% to 249.449 and 22% share vs. 24.4% including 58.033 short-term rental sales (-55.2%) and 170.754 long-term leases (-27.9%). Company sales freefall -44.8% to 163.934 and 14.5% share vs. 18.2% over the same period in 2019.

Looking at sales by fuel, petrol is down -31.5% to 49.809 and 31.5% share vs. 45.8% in October 2019, diesel is off by a much more moderate -14.6% to 48.726 and 30.8% share vs. 35.9% and GPL is ip 7.2% to 11.553 and 7.3% share vs. 6.8% in 2019. HEV is up 231.1% to 39.093 and 24.7% share vs. 7.4%, PHEV up 330.3% to 3.653 and 2.3% share vs. 0.5% and BEV up 205.1% to 2.889 and 1.8% vs. 0.6% a year ago. Total rechargeable vehicle sales are up 264.3% for the month to 6.542 and 4.1% share vs. 1.1% in October 2019. Year-to-date, petrol is down -38.6% year-to-date to 439.426 and 38.8% share vs. 43.8%, diesel down -41.6% to 388.987 and 34.4% vs. 40.8%, GPL down -35.6% to 75.722 and 6.7% share vs. 7.2% over the same period in 2019. HEV is up 82.7% to 165.011 and 14.6% share vs. 5.5%, PHEV soars 232.7% to 16.080 and 1.4% share vs. 0.3% a year ago and BEV surges 136.2% to 20.449 and 1.8% share vs. 0.5% in 2019. Total rechargeable vehicle sales are up a whopping 170.7% to 36.529 and 3.2% share vs. 0.8% in 2019.

Fiat (+18%) blissfully ignores the surrounding grey context, lodging the largest year-on-year gain in the Top 15 and climbing to 16.2% share, its highest since last April, all thanks to the success of its new mild hybrid lineup as we’ll see further down. Volkswagen (-24.6%) is in great difficulty but remains in 2^nd place with 8.2% share distancing Ford (-4.5%), Renault (+9%) and Peugeot (-11.5%). Suzuki (+39.7%), Skoda (+34.3%), Citroen (+16.5%), Jeep (+15.3%) and Mercedes (+11.6%) are the best performers in the remainder of the Top 20. Model-wise the Fiat Panda (+38.4%) is boosted by its new mild hybrid variant to over 15.000 sales and 9.6% share, its largest volume since March 2017 (17.476) and highest share since last April. The Renault Clio (+67%), Opel Corsa (+44.2%), Citroen C3 (+39.6%), Jeep Renegade (+25.9%), Fiat 500 (+20.7%), Renault Captur (+19.6%) and Toyota Yaris (+15.3%) also post sumptuous gains in the remainder of the Top 10. Below, the Suzuki Ignis manages a second consecutive month inside the Italian Top 20 (#20) thanks solely to its mild hybrid variant representing 2.130 of its 2.131 sales for the month. The Suzuki Swift is up 10 spots on last month to #27 with 1.691 of its 1.692 registrations being the new mild hybrid, while the Mercedes GLA (+167.9%), Audi A3 (+72.6%), Ford Focus (+63%), Dacia Sandero (+51.4%) and Hyundai Kona (+27%) also sparkle in the remainder of the Top 50.

Previous month: Italy September 2020: Government incentives lift private sales up 25%, trigger first market lift of 2020 (+9.8%) 

Previous year: Italy October 2019: Volkswagen above 10% share for the first time this decade

Full October 2020 Top 45 All-brands and Top 50 models below.