Europe First Half 2014: Trusted nameplates outperform market

The Audi A3 reaches its highest ever year-to-date ranking in Europe at #9.

* See the Top 356 best-selling models and Top 60 brands by clicking on the title! *

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After going through the detailed European models ranking for June, we now spend some time studying the year-to-date rankings in order to extract longer-term trends. As a reminder, Europe-wide sales are up 6% to 6.85 million units halfway through the year. An interesting observation at the very top of the models sales charts: the higher the rank, the stronger the year-on-year gains! This goes against a decade-long trend of increased fragmentation and thiner market shares for the leading vehicles, and would seem to indicate a strengthening of notoriety for the trusted nameplates around in these uncertain times. This can also be explained by new generations being launched roughly at the same time for the models in question, but in any case we have not seen this phenomenon happening in Europe in over a decade.

Both market leader and biggest gainer in the Top 8: the VW Golf.

Illustrating the trend, the VW Golf gains a very significant 14% over the same period one year ago, cementing its pole position at 269,074 sales, the Ford Fiesta is up 9% to regain the 2nd spot off the Renault Clio, itself up 5%. Reversely, the VW Polo is down 2% at #4, the Opel Corsa up just 1% at #5, the Ford Focus down 1% at #6 and the Peugeot 208 down a tough 13% at #7, hit full frontal by the success of the 2008 (#21). Note the Focus overtakes the 208 this month for 6th place overall, with another shift inside the year-to-date Top 10: the Audi A3 passes the Skoda Octavia to reach its highest-ever European year-to-date ranking at #9, even though neither models make it to the June Top 10.

The new generation pushes the Citroen C4 Picasso up 63% this year across Europe.

Other interesting changes inside the year-to-date Top 50 compared to last month include the Renault Captur boosted by its historical 7th place in June to #15 overall with 87,103 units, the Peugeot 308 back inside the European Top 20 at #19 (+60%) whereas it only ranked #41 one year ago and the Renault Mégane back up 4 ranks to #23, still a harsh 9 spots below its ranking at the same time last year. Not moving much on the ladder but lodging impressive year-on-year gains are the Fiat 500 at #12 (+15%), the VW Tiguan at #16 (+13%), Dacia Sandero at #20 (+36%), Citroen C3 at #22 (+40%), Seat Leon at #26 (+62%), Citroen C4 Picasso at #28 (+63%), Dacia Duster at #29 (+39%), Opel Mokka at #33 (+63%), Fiat 500L at #37 (+51) and Opel Insignia at #41 (+35%).

European Infiniti sales are up 70% so far in 2014.

Brand-wise, Volkswagen (+2%) and Ford (+5%) lead but see their market share decline while Opel (+8%), Renault (+14%) and Peugeot (+7%) outperform the market. Premium brands pause: Audi and BMW are up 5% while Mercedes is up 3%. Outside the Top 10, notice Skoda up 17%, Nissan up 10%, Dacia up 35% and among the Top 15 most popular brands in Europe for the first time ever, Seat up 12%, Mazda up 23% and Suzuki up 13%. Further down, let’s salute Jeep up 40%, Lexus up 35%, Infiniti up 70%, Maserati up 393% and Tesla landing at #34 with 5,440 sales.

Previous post: Europe June 2014: Discover the Top 340 best-selling models!

Previous month: Europe 5 months: Opel Astra rebounds

One year ago (models): Europe June 2013: Renault Clio now #2 year-to-date

One year ago (brands): Europe June 2013: Ford up 7%, Renault up to #3

Full First Half 2014 Top 356 models and Top 60 brands Ranking Tables below.