Car sales in the European 'Big 5' countries continued to see growth in November making it one month away from a full calendar year of consecutive growth. Jato Dynamics, the world's leading provider of automotive intelligence released their latest monthly new car sales results which showed that although growth was lower in November than previous months overall new car sales continued to grow.
The small dip in sales came from Germany who saw a decline of -1.8% and France who saw their market decline by -2.7% when compared to results from November 2013. Spain saw the highest level of growth out of the big 5 countries with a rise of 19.7%, whilst the UK car market saw an impressive rate of +8.0% growth.
In Italy where the new car sales market has been growing comfortably this year, they saw a growth of +5.4% compared to this time last year. Overall Jato said the level of growth of for the 'Big 5' markets was seeing a positive rate of growth with Spain, Great Britain and Italy helping to mitigate for the dips in the German and French car markets.
For the rest of Europe it was a case of mixed fortunes for the medium sized markets, year-on-year sales grew in the Czech Republic and Sweden who had +11.3% and +4.6% respectively. Norway, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland also saw small dips while in the Netherlands they saw their new car sales dip to -20%. Overall five countries from the 29 saw their sales levels fall this year, while the rest have seen a modest rise.
Top Brands
As for brands the top 10 volume names continued to see growth with all of them having posted year-to-date growth. Volkswagen remained in top position outselling their nearest competitor Ford by nearly double the amount of units sold. French manufacturers Renault were in third place with a growth rate of 9.2%, closing the gap on Ford who saw a rise of 4.3%.
Skoda who recently celebrated the production of their 1 millionth vehicle this year secured their place in the top ten with a rise of +14.2% the highest year-to-date increase among the top 10 brands. As for the luxury brands both BMW and Mercedes stayed in the top 10 with BMW seeing an increase of 8.2% and Mercedes 7.3%.
|
Make |
Nov 14 |
Nov 13 |
% change Nov |
Nov YtD '14 |
Nov YtD '13 |
% change YtD |
|
Volkswagen |
133,075 |
131,515 |
+1.2% |
1,486,479 |
1,428,220 |
+4.1% |
|
Ford |
66,054 |
70,714 |
-6.6% |
893,374 |
856,169 |
+4.3% |
|
Renault |
65,851 |
65,220 |
+1.0% |
799,819 |
732,168 |
+9.2% |
|
Opel/Vauxhall |
63,726 |
63,177 |
+0.9% |
817,809 |
759,845 |
+7.6% |
|
|
58,075 |
57,915 |
+0.3% |
725,121 |
685,457
|
+5.8% |
|
Audi |
56,529 |
54,567 |
+3.6% |
676,826 |
647,790 |
+4.5%
|
|
BMW |
54,567 |
50,418 |
+8.2% |
616,619 |
589,153 |
+4.7% |
|
Mercedes |
52,704 |
49,105 |
+7.3% |
606,249 |
578,616 |
+4.8% |
|
Skoda |
44,956 |
45,574 |
-1.4%
|
535,576 |
469,000 |
+14.2% |
|
Citroen |
43,159
|
46,084 |
-6.3% |
566,736 |
557,982 |
+1.6% |
Best-Selling Models
Volkswagen were also top of the best-selling models list for the second consecutive month with the brands flagship model the Golf seeing year on year gains of +3.2% and the Polo in second place with a growth of +12.4%. The popular Renault Clio was in third place with Britain's best-selling model the Ford Fiesta in fourth place. After winning 'European Car of the Year 2014' the Peugeot 308 shot into the top 10 with a year-on-year sales increase of 70.7%. Skoda's flagship model the Octavia remained in the top 10 best-selling models, and the award-winning Nissan Qashqai remained in the top with a year-on-year sales increase of 23.4%.
Top 10 Models
|
Make & Model
|
Nov 14 |
Nov 13 |
% change Nov |
Nov YtD '14 |
Nov YtD '13 |
% change YtD |
|
Volkswagen Golf |
43,733 |
42,361
|
+3.2% |
487,252 |
431,881 |
+12.8% |
|
Volkswagen Polo |
24,832 |
22,095 |
+12.4% |
259,406 |
244,995 |
+5.9% |
|
Renault Clio |
21,248 |
21,799 |
-2.5% |
275,166 |
262,611 |
+4.8% |
|
Ford Fiesta |
20,808 |
25,676 |
-19.0% |
289,396 |
271,594 |
+6.6% |
|
Opel/Vauxhall Corsa |
17,634 |
16,706 |
+5.6% |
232,928 |
221,862 |
+5.0% |
|
Skoda Octavia |
16,250 |
18,041 |
-9.9% |
189,042 |
153,187 |
+23.4% |
|
Nissan Qashqai |
15,281 |
12,858 |
+18.8% |
189,055 |
189,537 |
-0.3% |
|
Audi A3/S3/RS3 |
15,030 |
14,879 |
+1.0% |
187,375 |
155,624 |
+20.4% |
|
Peugeot 308 |
14,996 |
8,787 |
+70.7% |
146,724 |
91,584 |
+60.2% |
|
Peugeot 208 |
14,753 |
15,704 |
-6.1% |
200,513 |
222,503 |
-9.9% |
Speaking of the latest results Brian Walters, Vice President of Jato Dynamics said: "We are just one month away from what would be a fantastic full calendar year of sales growth for the European new car market. Although some of the larger markets saw a slow-down in November, overall performance for the year so far is positive in the vast majority of countries analysed."
So far 2014 has been a very successful year for the majority of European car manufacturers and from these latest round of results it looks like 2014 may just be one of the most successful years ever in the automotive industry.
We will be back in the New Year with the end of year results to see which brands have come out on top for new car sales and which models have been the most popular.
