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Sweden January 2017: Volvo S/V90 now has VW Golf in sight

The Volvo S/V90 posts its highest monthly volume so far at home and ranks #2.

* See the Top 42 All-brands and Top 250 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Swedish new car market is riding on the back of two additional selling days to gain 8% year-on-year in January to 23.282 registrations, a new record for the month and the 37th consecutive month of year-on-year gains. Market leader Volvo outpaces its home market at +15% to 4.732 sales but in 2nd place Volkswagen does even better at +21% to 4.288. BMW (-0.4%) and Kia (+3%) are more discreet, ahead of Mercedes surging 37% to 5th place and Audi crashing down 17% to #6. Seat (+15%), Mini (+29%), Ford (+61%), Porsche (+61%), Mitsubishi (+110%), Fiat (+126%) and Tesla (+458%) stand out with impressive gains.

The VW Golf is #1 in Sweden for the 5th time in the past 7 months. 

Now that the leader of the past two decades, the Volvo V70, has been discontinued, the Swedish models ranking brings its lot of surprises each month. The VW Golf led for four consecutive months from July to October – and was the first non-Volvo in 54 years to snap the pole position in FY16. Meanwhile Volvo is scrambling to find itself a new best-seller: the S/V60 took the overall lead for the first time ever in November, and in December it was the turn of the XC60. This month we have yet another picture: the VW Golf reclaims the top spot with 1.453 sales (+18%), and Volvo now separates sales of the defunct V70 (only 2 this month) from the all-new S/V90 tandem, up to 1.392: by a large margin its highest monthly volume so far and placing it at a close 2nd to the Golf. The recent arrival of the V90 Cross Country variant may well have been the key to unlock the nameplate’s sales potential at home. If the S/V90 continues to rises and manages the #1 spot in 2017, 2016 would just be a small bump in the road for Volvo.

The BMW 5 Series soars 112% to #8. 

The Top 7 is a VW-Volvo affair, with the Volvo S/V60 (#3), XC60 (#4), V40 (#7) and VW Passat (#5) and Tiguan (#6) up 202%. The BMW 5 Series soars 112% to #8, the Mercedes E-Class is up an ever more robust 183% to #11, with thePeugeot 3008 (+470%), Mitsubishi Outlander (+277%), Toyota Prius (+256%) and Fiat 500 (+2267%) also taking off. Among recent launches, the Kia Niro is in the clear lead at #29 above the  Seat Ateca (#58), Audi Q2 (#69) and Toyota C-HR (#70), so far more timid here than in the rest of Europe.

Previous post: Sweden Full Year 2016: #1 car not a Volvo for the first time in 54 years

One year ago: Sweden January-February 2016: Kia and Mazda shine in record market

Full January 2017 Top 42 All-brands and Top 250 All-models below.

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