Sweden March 2018: Volvo XC40 misses out on Top 10 for 5 sales

The Volvo XC40 ranks #11 at home in Sweden in March.

* See the Top 45 All-brands and Top 265 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Swedish new car market retracts by 3.1% year-on-year in March to 37.206 registrations, bringing the year-to-date volume down 2.2% to 87.397 units. Homegrown brand leader Volvo bucks the trend with a splendid 15% gain leading to a 23.4% market share vs. 23.1% so far in 2018 (+11%). Volkswagen also posts a healthy 3% improvement to 14.4% share but Toyota falls 13% to 6.4%, yet overtakes Kia (+9%) for third place. Skoda (+10%), Mercedes (+7%) and Hyundai (+1%) also beat the market but Audi (-19%), BMW (-8%) and Nissan (-5%) all underperform. Outside the Top 10, notice Ssangyong (+830%), Lamborghini (+500%), Seat (+29%) and Mini (+11%) but the heavy losses are a lot more common, with the hardest hit including Land Rover (-65%), Renault (-43%), Ford (-34%), Jeep (-33%), Mazda (-28%), Jaguar (-26%), Fiat (-24%) and Tesla (-23%).

In the models ranking, the Volvo S/V90 gallops ahead, gaining 45% to a stunning 9.4% share, 72% above the #2, the VW Golf (+0.4%) and comfortably headed towards its first annual win at home. The Volvo XC60 rallies back up two spots to #3, overtaking the VW Passat (+29%) and Volvo S/V60 (-27%). The VW Tiguan (+8%) makes it three Volkswagens in the Top 6 like it is the case so far in 2018, the Toyota Auris (-7%) is up 11 spots on February to #8 ahead of the Volvo V40 (-11%), Nissan Qashqai (-16%) and Skoda Octavia (+5%). The big event is just outside the Top 10: the all-new Volvo XC40 slices its February ranking in two and gains 11 spots to rank #11 with sales up 119% on last month, missing out on a very first Top 10 ranking at home by a mere 5 sales. Notice also the Opel Insignia (+251%), Skoda Kodiaq (+158%), Hyundai i30 (+136%), Kia Niro (+115%), Toyota RAV4 (+113%) and Kia Cee’d (+61%) all posting spectacular gains inside the Top 50.

Previous month: Sweden February 2018: Volvo S/V90 hits 10.8% share, XC40 up to #22

One year ago: Sweden February-March 2017: Volvo S/V90 takes control

Full March 2018 Top 45 All-brands and Top 265 All-models below.