The numbers in the sales figures recently released relating to scrappage deals can, on the one hand, show that Ford heads the list of the top ten brands benefiting from the scheme, with 17 percent of total scrappage sales to date.
But it makes equally interesting reading when you look at the individual brand scrappage sales as a proportion of each carmaker's total sales to date. And, on this analysis, the league goes like this.
First is Kia, which had 22 percent of its sales through scrappage. Then comes Hyundai, with 20 percent, a point up from Fiat with 19 percent.
The rest go Skoda (17%), Renault (16%), Ford (12%), Opel (7.9%), Volkswagen (6.8%), Nissan (6.7%) and Toyota (6.5%).
Those new top three are relatively small brands in the numbers game, and their biggest selling models are in the required A and B tax category anyhow. The others are generally big sellers of medium sized and medium CO2 band cars, such as Toyota with its very successful Avensis. Which skews their 'normal'/scrappage ratios.
It is also a thought that the less reliance on scrappage, the more profitable the brand? Which is good news for Toyota for a change. And then there's Renault, which has built up a whopping market share in a short time with the help of very steep discounting and very expensive advertising, a strategy that has the potential to come back and bite it twice in the backside. Once in the profit margins, and the second time in the residual values. Fiat did this before here and hasn't yet recovered. BB
