Ford's Europe Auto Sales Rise 9% in January

Ford Motor Co.'s European new-vehicle sales rose 9% in January—tripling the industry rise—as the Detroit auto maker continues to focus on the growing market for sport-utility vehicles there.

Ford sold 105,000 new vehicles across 50 European markets. In its 20 traditional European markets, where it is represented through national sales companies, sales shot up 10% to 96,900.

The auto maker also continued to grow its market share there, edging up 0.4 percentage point to 7.6%.

"The European auto industry is off to a very strong start and Ford was able to outpace this growth thanks largely to demand for our SUVs, commercial vehicles and performance vehicles," said Roelant de Waard, vice president of marketing, sales and service for Ford of Europe. "Importantly, we gained share by selling to retail customers while many others in industry are using self-registration and rentals sales extensively."

Ford said sales of its EcoSport and Kuga SUVs jumped 50% and 19%, respectively.

The company plans to launch seven new and refreshed vehicles this year, including the new Kuga and Edge SUVs, a Focus RS performance hatch, new powertrain and technologies for Transit and Transit Custom, and a freshened Ranger pickup.

Ford continues to anticipate surpassing 200,000 SUV sales in Europe for the first time, for growth of more than 30% in 2016.

Shares in the company, which have fallen 13% over the past month, were inactive premarket.

Write to Anne Steele at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 12, 2016 07:05 ET (12:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.