It looks like European car buyers are starting to warm up to electric car ownership and since the American and Chinese car brands have a head start in this area when it comes to branding and also price, the traditional European brands will slowly need to adapt quickly or be left out to eat dust.
This is why latest car sales news coming from Europe show that Tesla has overtaken Italian automotive legend, Alfa Romeo is Italian car sales figures.
Continuing the negative news is Alfa’s six-month sales dropping to just 42 percent compared with the same period last year. Alfa was also outsold by its one-model, one-market sister brand, Lancia, which managed to deliver 34,693 Ypsilons through June in Italy.
In addition, Alfa was overtaken during the first half by Jaguar and Porsche while even Toyota premium brand Lexus, which sold 27,267 vehicles in the half, is about to skip past the Italian marque.
The decline at Alfa has been rapid as it sold more than 120,000 vehicles globally last year largely because of strong demand in the U.S. and China. Unfortunately, Alfa U.S. sales were down 26 percent during the half and the overall China market’s decline is not helping.
July’s European sales figures were even less encouraging, with Alfa’s deliveries dropping by 56 percent in Italy, 66 percent in France and 70 percent in Spain.
The Guilia midsize sedan has struggled in a slumping segment. Even sales of the Stelvio midsize SUV are fading. Those two models were the start of a 5 billion euro investment plan announced in May 2014 that predicted Alfa’s global sales would reach 400,000 by 2018. That did not happen, and relief in the form of a new model will not come until 2021 when the Tonale compact SUV is due.
