ROME (Reuters) -Sales of new cars in Italy fell by 5.11% year-on-year in July, transport ministry data showed on Friday, indicating a persistently weak market in the European Union’s third largest economy.
Total sales in July stood at 118,493 vehicles.
Market leader Stellantis, whose brands include Fiat, Jeep and Peugeot, suffered an even bigger sales slide of around 13% year-on-year, according to Reuters calculations.
The Franco-Italian automaker’s market share, however, edged up to 25.8% from 24.55% in June, according to the same calculations.
Fiat remained Italy’s most popular car brand, followed by Toyota-Lexus and Volkswagen, the ministry data showed.
Chinese automaker BYD enjoyed an almost tenfold growth in sales, from 205 to 1,967 units, and overtook historic Italian brand Alfa Romeo, which last month sold 1,953 cars.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Gianluca Semeraro, Alexandra Hudson)
