Europe February 2015: VW Passat at highest in 3 years

The VW Passat hits its highest European ranking since August 2012.

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

For the second month in a row, the recovery in European new car sales is stronger than expected with a 8% year-on-year surge in February to 956,419 registrations, pushing the year-to-date total up to 1.985.713 units, up 7% on 2014. Volkswagen does even better than the market with sales up 12% on a year ago to 118,781 units and 12.4% share, with other Top 10 manufacturers delivering 10%+ gains being Renault in 2nd place with 69,617 sales (+15%), BMW at #8 and 48,278 units (+15%) and Mercedes at #9 with 45,087 sales (+12%). In fact the entire Top 10 is in positive territory this month, demonstrating the return into shape of the market.

Renault, Volkswagen and BMW are among the biggest gainers in Europe this month.

In the models ranking, Volkswagen monopolises the Top 2 for the second straight month and the 4th time in the past 5 months with the Golf (+6%) and Polo (+7%) in the lead. The Peugeot 208 is up 3 spots to break back into the monthly Top 5 for the first time in a year at #5, the Skoda Octavia (+12%), Nissan Qashqai (+20%) and Audi A3 (+11%) post very dynamic performances due to their recent renewals, but the hero of the month is without a doubt the VW Passat, up to its highest ranking since August 2012 in 8th position thanks to sales up 64% year-on-year to 15,711 units.

Previous post: Europe January 2015: Now with Top 335 All-models and All-brands

Previous month: Europe January 2014: Now with Top 334 All-models and All-brands

One year ago (models): Europe February 2014: Skoda Octavia up 39%, Fiat Panda in Top 10

One year ago (brands): Europe February 2014: Renault and Peugeot on podium

Full February 2015 Top 10 models and brands below.