Europe July 2015: VW Passat breaks into Top 5 for first time in 4 years

VW Passat sales are up 50% year-on-year in Europe in July.

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

After a 15% surge in June, the European new car market is up an equally impressive 9% year-on-year in July to 1.180.078 registrations – that’s a cool 23 consecutive months of year-on-year gains – lifting the year-to-date total to 8.595.528 units, also up 9% on 2014. Volkswagen gains slightly less ground than the market at +8% but remains in the lead by far at 152.160 units vs. 84.450 (+7%) for Ford at #2. Opel/Vauxhall is up one rank to reclaim its spot on the European podium at 74.736 sales (+3%) above Renault (+5%) threatened by fellow countryman Peugeot (+11%) at 70.831 sales vs. 70.223. Inside the Top 10, Mercedes and Fiat both show the healthiest results: up 12% on July 2014.

Mercedes sales are up 12% year-on-year in Europe.

In the models ranking, Volkswagen brilliantly manages to place 3 models inside the Top 5 for the first time in over four years: the VW Golf is up 11% to celebrate 64 consecutive months in the European pole position (the last time the Golf did not rank #1 in Europe is March 2010 – before BSCB was created), the VW Polo is up 16% in 2nd place and the VW Passat is up 50% to #5 with 21.972 sales, 52% of which coming from Germany where it hit its strongest volume in 8 years in July. The last time the Passat ranked within the European Top 5 was in April 2011, and the only time before that was in December 2005, almost 10 years ago. Historically high scores for the Passat in Europe indeed. The Skoda Octavia is up 6 spots on June to #6, the Ford Focus up 12% year-on-year at #7 but the Opel Corsa is down 11% to #9 despite the arrival of the new model.

Previous post: Europe 1st Half 2015: Recovery now firmly in place – albeit artificial?

Previous month: Europe June 2015: Renault Captur equals all-time record #7 spot

Full July 2015 Top 10 models Ranking Table below.