The European automobile market was stagnated for this year. On the basis of the number of cars sold until November of last year, the sales for 10 major automobile companies in Europe, including Volkswagen (239.5 million sales) and Peugeot (197.8 million sales대), has been fallen this year. Especially with Fiat (989 thousand cars) has suffered a 9.6% decrease compared to last year’s sales, Ford (1 billion cars) with a minus of 4.3% and also BMW (578 thousand cars) was not an exception with its own lose of -0.5%. 

On the other hand, Japan (1.6 million cars) and Korean (435 thousand cars) has increased sales in the European market. Japan automobile sales has jumped up to 9% compared to last year figures and holds 12.7% of the total European automobile market. This shows that Japanese cars are rapidly gaining public favor in the closed, European market. 

But the most phenomenal success is with the Korean automobiles. Average increasing rate in November this year is surprising 19.4% and sales record of 3.3% secures the fact that Korean automobiles are having its part in the European market. 

Source: KOTRA, December 13, 2003