2015 European Automotive Sales by Brand – The Best-Selling Automotive Brands By Sales Volume
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to see Volkswagen is still the best selling brand in Europe, but it loses some of its impressive market share, from 12.4% to 12.1% as it grows slower than the market. In the battle for 2nd place, Ford grows to top 1 million sales again, which it last did in 2011. Coincidentally, the company also returns to an operating profit for the first time in 3 years. General Motors is still losing money in Europe, but expects to make a profit in 2016 after decades of losses. Still, its Opel/Vauxhall brand lost its third place to Renault, which passes Volkswagen in December thanks to its impressive last month of the year to become the brand with the biggest volume improvement in 2015 with 98,000 additional sales. With new model introductions of the Talisman, Megane and in the second half of the year the Scenic, plus benefiting from continued growth of the Kadjar and new Espace, the French actually have a shot at passing Ford this year. The Americans are only launching low-volume models this year, with the long-overdue replacements of the S-Max and Galaxy MPVs, and the introduction of the Edge large SUV.
Audi holds on to the title of best selling luxury brand, but BMW and Mercedes-Benz are closing in, as both show double the growth rates of their rival. Volvo is more than 450,000 sales behind the #3 in fourth place (18th overall). Nissan was ahead of Toyota at the end of November, but thanks to an excellent month of December, Toyota manages to hold on to the title of most popular Asian brand in Europe, by a margin of less than 2.500 units. In 2014, the gap was still 48,500 units, so Nissan is closing in fast. The Japanese brand did manage to overtake Citroën last year, and increased the gap with Hyundai. Kia moved back ahead of Dacia despite the French-Romanian brand’s impressive first half of the year, and Mini passed Suzuki to enter the top-20. Jeep was the only brand to more than double its sales at +115.1%, and gaining 4 places in the process, two of which are its FCA stablemates Alfa Romeo and Lancia.
