Chevy's European woes to last through 2016

General Motors' Chevrolet brand is struggling to gain a solid foothold in the European market, and some analyst say the bow tie brand could continue its backward slide until 2016.

GM has been aggressively trying to expand its Chevy brand across Europe for the last few years, but an aging lineup and a foreign manufacturing base has hampered those efforts. Chevrolet's European sales have tanked by 33 percent so far this year, compared to the overall market's 7 percent decline.

Meanwhile, other value brands that compete with Chevy – like Dacia and Kia – have seen their sales increase this year.

Analysts say shoppers are skipping over Chevy due to the automaker's older products and a manufacturing base located largely in South Korea rather than Europe.

"Chevrolet isn't helped by products that aren't going to set the world on fire compared with Hyundai and Kia," IHS Automotive senior analyst Ian Fletcher told Automotive News.

Although based in Korea, both Hyundai and Kia have engineering and manufacturing facilities located in Europe, allowing them to tailor vehicles to meet local tastes.

To make matters worse, Chevy is facing competition from GM's own Opel brand. Opel maintains that each division has its own “distinctive brand positioning and aim at different customers,” but dealer discounts often put both brands at a similar price point. Opel and Chevy also share vehicle platforms, further blurring the line between the two brands.

“There are certainly some mixed messages in its range," Fletcher said.

Chevrolet's European sales slid 3 percent to 172,000 units last year, and that trend is expected to continue for the next three years. Industry body ACEA predicts Chevrolet's sales will hit 200,000 units in 2016 on the back of new product launches, but not before sales hit a low of 148,000 units in 2015.