After a difficult March due largely to the early Easter holiday, April saw a reversal in European car sales with a 9.4% year on year increase (to 120,235 units) and total volume of 1,396,845 units, according to UK-based Jato Dynamics.
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“With a generally positive start to the first quarter of the year, the year-to-date figures for the European market are encouraging, with the market up 0.6% (33,684 units) to total year to date sales of 5,484,777 units, compared to the same period last year,” the analyst said.
Brand Performance
Volkswagen continued to lead the European market, topping the sales charts in both April and year-to-date, ahead of Ford, Opel/Vauxhall, Renault and Peugeot.
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| Top Ten European brands |
Following the positive upward trend in April, manufacturers posted significant increased registrations compared to the same period a year ago.
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By GlobalDataSmart was up 55.9%, Dacia up 35.4%, BMW up 26.0%, Nissan up 19.5%, Mercedes up 19.3%, Volkswagen up 12.6%, and Ford up 10.4%.
Year-to-date results mirrored April, with Volkswagen up 3.2%, Fiat up 5.2%, Mercedes up 5.5%, and BMW up 11.7%.
Top Models
The VW Golf reclaimed its place as Europe’s top-selling new car in April with 45,785 units registered, ahead of the Peugeot 207 (42,207 units), the Renault Clio (34,286), Opel/Vauxhall Corsa (34,225), Ford Focus (34,076), Opel/Vauxhall Astra (32,687), Fiat Punto (30,307), Ford Fiesta (26,902), Volkswagen Polo (26,205), and the VW Passat (25,078).
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| Top Ten European models |
For the year so far, the Golf has outsold all other models in Europe (up 23.3%), followed by the 207 (up 7.3%), Focus, Corsa, Astra, Clio, Fiesta, Punto, Polo (3.6%) and Passat.
National Trends
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| European trends |
The European market in April was dominated by significant growth in eastern European with Lithuania spearheading the charge (up 66.8%) year to date, whilst a recovering market in Germany (up 7.6%), also helped to boost the European car market during the month (up 0.6% overall).
Vehicle sales also rose in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.
