Sweden January 2025: Subaru Outback surprise leader, Forester and Crosstrek in Top 10

The Subaru Outback is the best-selling vehicle in Sweden in January.

New car sales in Sweden jump 14.4% year-on-year in January to 19,632 units. EV sales gain 15.3% to 5,660 and 28.8% share vs. 28.6% a year ago while PHEVs edge up 9.2% to 4,464 and 22.7% share vs. 23.8% in January 2024. All in all, electrified vehicles hold 51.6% of the market vs. 52.4% last year. The main event rejigging the charts this month (and they were plenty rejigged) is the tax surge for ethanol cars that came into effect on February 1. As a result, some manufacturers rushed to register cars before the deadline to avoid the tax. It is the mainly the case for Subaru, soaring by an out-of-this world 940.3% year-on-year to land in third place overall with 13.1% share below Volvo (+0.4%) at 15.7% and Volkswagen (+42.4%) at 14.5%. As a reminder Subaru ranked #15 with 1.7% share in December and #14 with also 1.7% share over the Full Year 2024. Other great performers (not all linked to the ethanol tax) include Cupra (+224%), Polestar (+103.9%), Skoda (+23.7%), Peugeot (+21.8%) and BMW (+21.4%).

Subaru is the star performer in the models Top 10 with the Outback (+557.1%) the outright best-seller. It ranked #33 in December and #19 over the Full Year 2024. The Forester (+1892.9%) is up to #4 and the Crosstrek (+1090%) up to #8. We will probably never see this type of result again for Subaru in Sweden. The Volvo XC60 (+58.2%) also performs very well at #2 while the VW ID.7 (+2520%) climbs onto the podium for the first time at #3. The VW Golf (+100.4%), VW ID.4 (+45.5%) and BMW 5 Series (+281.8%) also shine below whereas the Volvo XC40 (-45.1%) implodes to #7. Notice also the Tesla Model Y off -48.5% year-on-year and the Model 3 down -31.7% to #50.

Previous post: Sweden Full Year 2024: Tesla Model Y #1 again, Polestar 2 in Top 10, BEVs down -15.9%

One year ago: Sweden January 2024: Volvo XC60 leads the way, EX30 up to #12

Full January 2025 Top 50 All brands and Top 270 All models below.