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 Opel has struggled to retain market share in recent years, suffering
from management disruption and a scarcity of new products.
It launched the Adam a year ago in an attempt to recover in Europe,
where an economic crisis has steered customers toward smaller,
cheaper-to-run cars.
Opel and UK sister brand Vauxhall had a European market share of
5.61 percent in 2013, up from 5.59 percent in 2012, Opel said on
Monday, citing preliminary sales figures.
In Germany — Europe's biggest auto market — Opel expanded its market
share to 7 percent from 6.9 percent, it said.
The increase comes amid a continued decline in overall sales in
Europe, where the auto market is expected to have contracted by 25
percent, or 4.3 million vehicles, in 2013 from 2007 levels, analysts
at Moody's Investors Service said.
Pan-European sales figures for different brands have not yet been
published. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association is set
to release European car registration figures for 2013 on January 16.
Peter Christian Kuespert, Opel's vice president of sales and
after-sales, said the introduction of the Adam had helped boost
deliveries.
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Sales of the city car exceeded expectations, recording 21,000 new
registrations in Germany in 2013, he said. Sales of the Mokka
compact offroader reached around 20,000.
The Adam fits into Europe's small car or subcompact segment — the
biggest slice of the market, totaling about a quarter of new car
registrations last year, according to data from JATO Dynamics.
Opel's current Corsa subcompact was launched in 2006, making it one
of the oldest products being offered in European showrooms where it
competes with the Ford Fiesta, the Peugeot 208 and the Renault Clio.
Corsa sales fell 14 percent in 2012.
(Reporting by Edward Taylor; editing by Pravin Char)
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