Switzerland May 2016: Volkswagen up 2% in market down 5%

Volkswagen goes agains the grain with a 2% gain, partly thanks to the new Tiguan. 

* See the Top 40 best-selling brands and Top 330 All-models by clicking on the title *

Another month in negative for Switzerland, with new car sales down 5% year-on-year in May to 26.123 units, dragging the year-to-date tally down 1.5% to 126.778 deliveries. Volkswagen manages to gain ground at +2% to post a solid 13.5% market share vs. 12.2% so far in 2016, and is followed as per the year-to-date ranking by BMW (-4%), Mercedes (+2%), Skoda (-14%) and Audi (-19%). Ford (+9%) and Opel (-18%) overtake Renault (-27%) to rank 6th and 7th respectively, while Hyundai (+31%) delivers the largest year-on-year improvement inside the Top 20. Mazda (+19%), Volvo (+23%), Dacia (+16%), Mini (+17%), Kia (+19%) and Honda (+80%) also frankly beat the market just as Jaguar gains 144%, boosted by the XE and F-Pace.

The VW Golf reclaims the pole position in the models ranking but its thin advantage over the Skoda Octavia (19 sales) doesn’t allow it to return to #1 year-to-date as well: the Octavia still leads after five months with 4.978 units vs. 4.811. The VW Polo (+44%) is faithful to the 3rd place it also holds YTD while the VW Tiguan is up 81 spots on April to #4 thanks to the new generation. The Mini Cooper is up 43% to #5, the BMW 2 Series up 31% to #6, the Hyundai Tucson up to a brilliant 9th spot, the Seat Alhambra up 61% to #18 and the BMW X1 up 115% to #19.

Previous month: Switzerland April 2016: Skoda Octavia dominant, BMW X1 in Top 10

One year ago: Switzerland May 2015: Volkswagen Group monopolises Top 8

Full May 2016 Top 40 brands and Top 330 All-models below.