Sweden July 2011: Volvo V60 back up to #3 but cannibalises sales

Volvo V60

* See the Top 50 best-selling models by clicking on ‘Read more’ at the end of the post! *

New car sales in Sweden are down slightly in July at -4% and 19,621 units but still up 11% year-to-date at 176,663 registrations. No surprises on top: the Volvo V70 is cruising along with 1,455 sales and 7.4% of the market, higher than its year-to-date share (6.8%).

The VW Passat holds onto its 2nd place and improves its share by more than one percentage point on June with 5.3% and 1,031 sales. For the first time since January the Volvo V60 is on the podium at #3, its best position in Sweden so far, with 668 sales and 3.4%. Its little sister the Volvo V50 follows at 623 sales and 3.2%, making it 3 Volvos in the Top 4 for the first time since February.

Volvo V70

Now that the V60 is well established in the ranking, it’s a good opportunity to figure out whether it has cannibalised the other 2 Volvo station wagons’ sales or if in fact its launch has brought new consumers to the brand. Looking at July 2011 figures vs. July 2010 only, it would seem option 2 is right: the total V50/V60/V70 add up to 14% market share vs. 11.9% for the V50/V70 last year. However year-to-date figures show complete cannibalisation: over the first 7 months of 2011 the V50/V60/V70 are at 13.5% share vs. 13.4% over the same period in 2010 for the V50/V70 duo…

Other good performers this month include the Ford Focus up 4 spots to #8, the Kia Sportage up 5 spots to #19, the Citroen C4 up 17 spots to #24 and the Peugeot 508 breaking into the Top 30 for the first time in Sweden at #26 (+5). Notice the Saab 9-3 drop 22 spots to #63 with 83 sales (0.4%), down to #16 YTD, and the Saab 9-5 drop to #131 with only 17 units sold this month.

Previous month: see the June 2011 post here.

Full July 2011 Top 50 Ranking Table below.