Europe January 2015: Corsa and Qashqai shoot up, Yaris in Top 10

The Toyota Yaris is among Europe’s Top 10 for only the third time ever.

* See the Top 10 best-selling models and brands by clicking on the title *

The European new car market accelerates its recovery in January at +6% to 1.028.796 units. Encouragingly, the Top 6 largest markets on the continent are all up year-on-year, with Spain faring the best at +28%. Among the Top 10 brands, Volkswagen (+8%), Renault (+12%), Mercedes (+14%) and Opel (+15%) outperform the market. Fiat is back up to #9, its first time in the European Top 10 since June 2014, while Toyota breaks an even longer drought (15 months, first time since September 2013) at #10.

Opel Corsa sales are up 49% year-on-year Europe-wide thanks to the new model.

In the models ranking, below the VW Golf, the VW Polo overtakes the Renault Clio to make it a Volkswagen 1-2, while the Opel Corsa is boosted 49% year-on-year by the new generation to 5th place and 21,225 registrations. The Nissan Qashqai, also with a new model now well established, is up 42% to #6 and 18,163 deliveries. Only once did the Qashqai rank better in Europe: in February 2013 (#5), it also ranked #6 in July 2014. While we welcome back the Peugeot 208 (+3 on December to #8) and Audi A3 (+6 to #9), the big event in January is the Toyota Yaris cracking the European Top 10 for the only third time ever after March 2012 and September 2012, and the first time for this generation.

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Previous month: Europe December 2014: Peugeot 308 breaks ranking record again

One year ago: Europe January 2014: Audi A3 and Skoda Octavia shoot up

Full January 2015 Top 10 models below.