European new car sales up 9.3% in 2015

In 2015, the European car market totalled 14.2 million sales, up 9.3 percent over 2014; the highest since 2009. The market benefited from the last two months of double-digit growth with December setting the highest positive monthly change of the last three years at 1.16 million units. Therefore, the last quarter volume increase was the highest of the year, standing at 10.2 percent more than in Q4-2014, representing 3.42 million cars sold in total. The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) came in at 16.52 million units.

In 2015, nearly all of the markets (27 out of 29) posted a positive registrations increase with only Estonia and Luxembourg falling behind the levels experienced in 2014. The biggest gainers were Italy and Spain, which together added almost 400,000 units to the year’s total with Spain posting its highest total since 2008, and Italy recording its best result since 2011. Meanwhile, Germany topped the overall market with 3.2 million new cars, up 5.6 percent, reaching its highest total since 2009. The UK came second with an all-time record of 2.63 million units (up 6.3 percent), and in France registrations went up 6.8 percent to 1.92 million units, the highest since 2011. 

Commenting on the sales, Felipe Munoz, marketing analyst at JATO Dynamics, said, “Last year was very positive for the industry in terms of growth. Most of the car markets that suffered the most during the European crisis posted the highest annual increases. Even in the case of Greece, its registrations growth rate in 2015 outperformed those seen in the UK and Germany.”

Volkswagen led the European market with 1.72 million units and 12.11 percent market share, but its sales only increased by 7 percent compared to 2014. However, despite recent challenges, it only lost 0.28 percentage points of market share. Ford was second, exceeding the million units mark but also lost market share. Renault, GM brands and Peugeot completed the top 5. The rest of the top 10 was made up of the three German premium brands, with Audi leading the annual total but posting the lowest growth among them. Fiat and Skoda completed the top 10 - the Italian brand moving further ahead of Skoda. 

“With tiny exceptions, most of the brands competing in Europe sold more cars than the previous year. However, not all of them benefited the same from the rising demand. The brands that enlarged their ranges introducing new models and SUVs were the big winners in 2015”, explained Munoz.

The Volkswagen Golf was once again the best-selling car in Europe with more than 530,000 units sold in 2015. It was ahead of the second place Ford Fiesta by more than 200,000 units. The Golf was the best-selling car in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland and kept its position despite its slower annual growth, the third lowest in the top 10. Renault’s Clio and Volkswagen’s Polo finished in third and fourth place respectively. The Nissan Qashqai continued to be the best-selling SUV/crossover in Europe and was one of only two models to post double-digit growth in the top 10 apart from Volkswagen’s Passat.