2017 European Automotive Sales by Brand – The Best-Selling Automotive Brands By Sales Volume
The European passenger car market grows by 3% in 2017, to nearly 15.5 million sales, making this the fourth consecutive year of growth in Europe, and the highest volume since 2007, before the financial crisis knocked the market on its knees. However, it is the slowest rate of growth of those four years, and we’ve had 3 months of year-over-year declines, compared to 2 in 2016 and none in 2014 and 2015. Like in the US and China, the shift away from cars and MPVs towards crossover and SUVs is evident and seemingly unstoppable. Sales of type of vehicle have increased for 9 consecutive years and their share of the market has more than doubled in just 6 years time, from 14.3% in 2011 to 29.9% in 2017, with a gain of 16.2% last year. Sales of cars (hatchbacks, sedans, station wagons, coupes and convertibles) and MPVs are down in 2017 after three years of growth, with cars losing 1.3% and down to 60.1% of the market and MPV sales down 5.3% to 10% of the market.
Among the major markets, Italy (+7.9%), Spain (+7.7%) and France (+4.7%) outperformed the market, followed by Germany (+2.7%). UK car sales (‐5.7%) declined for the first time in six years. New EU member states showed a strong performance, growing by 12.8%. Lithuania was the fastest growing market at 27.3%, followed by Hungary at +20.4% and Bulgaria at +18.5%. Besides the UK, the only losers are Ireland (-10.4%), Switzerland (-1%), Denmark (-0.5%) and Finland (-0.4%). You can find historic data of each European member state (including LCV sales) and almost any other country in the world by using the drop-down menu at the top right-hand corner of our site, under Worldwide Car Sales Data.
