Sweden July 2020: Kia (+26.3%), Mercedes (+13.7%), Audi (+12.6%) thin market fall to -4%

Kia (+26.3%) posts the largest gain in the Top 20 in July.

The Swedish new car market manages to drastically reduce its fall in July to just -4% year-on-year at 22.718 units, leading to a year-to-date tally down -22.5% to 148.403. Helping a lot are sales of rechargeable vehicles (EV and PHEV) up almost 3-fold year-on-year at +182% to 6.705 units and 29.5% share vs. just 10.1% in July 2019. Year-to-date, rechargeable cars are up a mammoth 80.5% to 39.273 and 26.5% share vs. 11.4% over the same period a year ago. The Top 3 best-selling brands all buck the negative trend and post year-on-year gains, starting with local behemoth Volvo (+9.2%) up to 20.3% share vs. 19.3% so far this year. It distances Volkswagen (+9%) at 13.3% but the best performer is Kia (+26.3%) back up to #3 with a splendid 10.7% share, only its 5th ever double-digit market share after July 2018 (11.5%), September 2018 (11%), January 2020 (11.7%) and February 2020 (10.1%).

Mercedes (+13.7%), Audi (+12.6%), Peugeot (+6.2%) and Ford (+4.6%) also manage a positive result in the remainder of the Top 10 whereas Toyota (-22%) and Skoda (-6.3%) underperform. Below, Lamborghini (+200%), Ferrari (+125%), Porsche (+115.9%), Jeep (+101.6%) and Land Rover (+16.4%) stand out but Tesla (-98.1%), Subaru (-71.8%), Jaguar (-69.8%), Mazda (-61.3%), Mitsubishi (-60.4%), Opel (-47.4%), Suzuki (-47.1%), Honda (-40.6%), Nissan (-34.8%) and Seat (-31.1%) all implode. Newcomer Polestar breaks into its home Top 30 for the first time thanks to 50 sales of the new Polestar 2.

First Top 100 finish for the Polestar 2 at home.

In the models ranking, the Volvo S/V60 (+5.7%) easily retains the pole position it also holds YTD while the Volvo XC60 (+25.8%) repeats at #2 thanks to strong sales of its PHEV variant representing a whopping 75% of its July volume vs. 46% YTD. The Volvo XC40 (+89.4%) almost doubles its sales year-on-year and sings its second ever podium finish at home after last February (#2), also thanks to its new PHEV version accounting for 49% of its July sales and 23% so far this year. The Kia Niro (+84.3%) leaps up 4 spots on June to #4 with 4.1% share vs. 3.2% YTD, toppling the Volvo S/V90 (-15.8%) and VW Golf (+1.5%). The VW Passat (+119.6%) more than doubles its June 2019 volume thanks to its PHEV variant (56%) just as the Kia Ceed (+64.4%) whose new PHEV station wagon version accounts for 58% of the nameplate’s July sales. The BMW X1 (+264.4%), Audi e-Tron (+181.6%), VW T-Roc (+158.6%), Hyundai Kona (+143.9%) and Peugeot 2008 (+122.3%) all post spectacular gains in the remainder of the Top 50. The Skoda Kamiq (#36) is the most popular recent launch (<12 months) above the Porsche Taycan (#67) breaking into the Swedish Top 100 for the first time, the Ford Puma (#76), Mazda CX-30 (#80) and Polestar 2 (#92) also making its first Top 100 appearance.

Previous month: Sweden June 2020: Volumes down -22.2% despite strong rechargeable sales (+86%)

One year ago: Sweden July 2019: Volvo (+189.5%) recovers in market up 89.2%, Tesla Model 3 in Top 10

Full July 2020 Top 45 All-brands, Top 245 All-models and Top 12 rechargeable models below.