March 2016: Sales of electric cars in Germany contracted while sales of hybrid cars, and especially plug-in hybrid vehicles, continued to increase. During the first quarter of 2016, new electric passenger vehicle registrations were flat compared to a year ago while hybrid car registrations were up by more than a quarter with plug-in hybrid car … Read more
March 2016: new passenger vehicle registrations increased in China, Europe, India and the USA with weaker sales in Japan, Russia and Brazil. China was again the largest and fastest growing major car market in the world while Europe outperformed the US market in March. The contraction in Russia and Brazil was less severe in March … Read more
Volkswagen remained Europe’s largest carmaker and best-selling brand despite loosing market share in a expanding market at the start of 2016. The European new car market grew by 8.1% to just below 4 million cars during the first three months of 2016. Almost all car manufacturers and marques increased sales but market leader Volkswagen had … Read more
New passenger vehicle registrations in the European Union increased by 8.1% to almost 4 million cars during the first quarter of 2016. Germany and the UK were again the largest markets but Italy took third place from France during the first three months of 2016. Greece, The Netherlands and Switzerland were the only car markets … Read more
2016 started well for German luxury car brands with Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW and Audi all setting new sales record during the first quarter of the year. Mercedes-Benz sales grew the fastest of the German premium car brands allowing Mercedes to overtake both Audi and BMW to become the largest manufacturer of luxury cars in the … Read more
The British car market grew by 5.1% during the first quarter of 2016. Ford and the Fiesta were the top-selling car brand and model. Although Ford, Vauxhall and Volkswagen remained the strongest carmakers in the UK, most of the gains accrued to smaller marques. March 2016 set new records for car sales in Britain with … Read more
New vehicle registrations in Japan shrank by 6.9% during the first quarter of 2016. Toyota remained the top-selling car brand and the Prius the top model. Passenger car sales in Japan were even weaker and contracted by 7.5%. Lexus and BMW were the only top brands to have increased sales in Japan during the first … Read more
New passenger vehicle registrations in Germany increased by 4.5% during the first quarter of 2016. Volkswagen was the top-selling brand and the VW Golf Germany’s favorite car. Although VW sales were down during the first three months of 2016, Audi sales increased strongly to take second place as best-selling car brand in Germany from Mercedes-Benz. … Read more
The PSA Group was the strongest carmaker in France during the first quarter of 2016 with Renault the best-selling brand and the Clio the top-selling model. New passenger vehicle registrations in France increased by 8.2% during the first three months of 2016 to just over half a million sales. Electric car sales doubled and took … Read more
February 2016: Car sales increased strongly in Europe and the USA, moderately in China and India while the Japanese, Russian and Brazilian markets weakened further. The European Union saw the 30th consecutive month of car sales increases in February 2016. The US market also expanded and was the largest single-country market in the world for … Read more