Sweden November 2016: Volvo S/V60 best-seller for the first time

The Volvo S/V60 is the best-selling nameplate at home for the first time in history.

* See the Top 45 best-selling brands and Top 265 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Swedish new car market gains 1.4% year-on-year to snap its 35th consecutive month in positive territory and the highest ever November score at 31.801 deliveries, pushing the year-to-date tally up 7.5% to a record-breaking 335.037 units. Bertil Molden, CEO of BIL Sweden, says there is no reason for this euphoric situation to end anytime soon: “NIER’s Business Tendency Survey, published last week, shows a bright mood in the Swedish economy. Consumer confidence in the economy rose further in November, and the perception of their own finances are now more optimistic than in the past nine years. All these are positive signs for continued strong auto market.” Homegrown Volvo slides 3 but remains in the lead with 20.8% share ahead of Volkswagen up 10% to 16.9%. BMW is up 3 spots on October to jump onto the podium at #3 and 6.1% share, overtaking Toyota for the 4th spot year-to-date and now threatening Kia for #3 at 20.099 sales vs. 20.154. Opel (+17%), Dacia (+29%), Renault (+29%), Ford (+47%) and Porsche (+111%) are the other success stories of the month.

The VW Golf should be the first non-Volvo to finish 2016 at #1 since 1960! Picture mullersvarld.se 

As we have witnessed in the past few months, the Swedish models ranking is currently in the middle of a once-in-two-decades reshuffle. The 19-year domination of the Volvo V70 has come to an end with the discontinuation of the nameplate, replaced by the more expensive S/V90 and resulting in a sales slump even when combining the V70 with the S/V90: down 72% to #6 this month. The VW Golf, helped by the new Alltrack 4WD station wagon variant, led the sales charts for four consecutive months until October and is now standing a mere 219 sales below the V70-S/V90 year-to-date, meaning it should snap the Swedish annual pole position in a month-time, becoming the first non-Sweden nameplate to do so in almost 60 years! (since the VW Beetle in 1960).

The Volvo XC60 is also recuperating sales from the defunct V70.

Yet another twist and turn is clouding this picture in November: the Volvo S/V60 (in fact almost all sales are the V60) surges 55% year-on-year to 2.414 sales to take the lead of the Swedish charts for the first time ever. Although this score enables the nameplate to pass the VW Passat year-to-date to rank #3, it is coming too late in the year for Volvo to hope retaining the annual top spot with the V60 instead of the V70/V90 combo. The Volvo XC60 is also recuperating V70 sales with deliveries up 26% in third position. Other great performers this month include the VW Polo up 127% to #7, the Toyota Avensis up 114% to #16, the Audi A3 up 46%, Ford Focus up 55%, Kia Rio up 57%, BMW 2 Series up 113%, Citroen C3 up 117% and Renault Megane up 138%. Among recent launches, the Hyundai Ioniq is up 151 spots on October to break into the Top 100 at #92 and the Audi Q2 is up 91 to #112.

Previous month: Sweden October 2016: VW Golf takes root in pole position

One year ago: Sweden November 2015: Volvo XC60 hits highest share in record market

Full November 2016 Top 45 best-selling brands and Top 265 All-models below.