Germany May 2015: VW monopolises Top 4 for third time ever

June 11, 2015
Matt Gasnier

The VW Polo is up 42% year-on-year in Germany in May.

* See the Top 317 All-models and Top 50 brands by clicking on the title *

The German new car market is down a disappointing 7% year-on-year in May to 256.385 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 1.305.410 units, still up 3.5% on 2014. If some analysts see in this decline the sign that the European recovery is not yet a sure thing, the reality is it is mainly due to less selling days this month than in May 2014. Volkswagen fares slightly better than the market at -4% and 21.8% and places 4 models in the Top 4 this month and only for the third time in the manufacturer’s 77-year long life along with January and February 2014: the Golf (+6%), Passat (+2%), Polo (+42%) and Tiguan (-14%).

Ssangyong German sales more than triple year-on-year in May.

Mercedes reclaims the #2 brand spot it holds year-to-date off Audi with sales down just 2% to 23.744 and thanks to the C-Class back up to #5 (+23%) while the Audi A3 is down to #7 (-23%) and Audi drops 13% to #3 in the brands ranking. BMW (-9%), Opel (-20%) and Ford (-13%) suffer, while impressive carmakers include Porsche (+6%), Nissan (+13%), Land Rover (+19%), Mini (+20%), Jeep (+52%), Lexus (+56%), Tesla (+61%), Smart (+70%), Mitsubishi (+83%) and Ssangyong (+240%).

The Opel Astra surges to #6 in the wake of its new generation launch.

Model-wise, below the Top 5 mentioned above, the Opel Astra uncharacteristically leaps back up to #6 which seems to be a periodical event as it also ranked #6 in May 2014. The current generation Astra has also now entered runout mode after the new gen was unveiled last month. The Skoda Octavia is back inside the Top 10 at #8, the Skoda Fabia is up two spots to #13, the Seat Leon up 3 to #14, Fiat Ducato up 5 to #16, Seat Ibiza up 14 to #30, the Hyundai i10 up 38% year-on-year to #34, the Hyundai ix35 up 13% to #37, the Ford Mondeo up 65% to #44, Mercedes CLA up 11 ranks to #47, Mitsubishi Space Star up 16 to #49 and the Mercedes V-Class breaking into the German Top 50 for the first time at #48.

First Top 50 ranking for the Mercedes V-Class in Germany.