Sweden January 2026: Market off -18.3%, Volvo EX/XC40 leads, Kia K4 SW lands in Top 10

The Kia K4 SW ranks inside the Top 10 for its first month of sales.

New car sales in Sweden are down a daunting -18.3% year-on-year to 16,041 units. The decrease is due, among other things, to the large increase in ethanol cars in January last year, ahead of changed tax rules that came into effect on February 1, 2025. This resulted in a record high share of ethanol cars of 8.5%, which will fall back to 0.5% this year. It also resulted in a surprise third place of Subaru in the brands ranking. The share of plug-in cars is at 64.2% vs. 51.6% a year ago, with BEVs up 18.6% to 41.8% share vs. 28.8% a year ago while PHEVs drop -18.8% to 3,582 but keep their share stable at 22.3% vs. 22.7% last year.

Local behemoth Volvo (-25.9%) drops faster than the market to a weak 14.3% share to be compared with 19.3% in December and 17.9% over the Full Year 2025. Volkswagen (-35.2%) fares even worse to 11.5% vs. 15.9% last month. Toyota (+0.9%) is stable, a good performance in the current context and reaches 10% share vs. 8.1% over FY 2024. However the next two carmakers do much better: Kia is up 12.6% and Mercedes up 46.5%. Tesla (+26.4%), Skoda (+10.8%) and BMW (+0.2%) are also up in the remainder of the Top 10. Below, Seat (+120.8%), Citroen (+112.9%), Fiat (+98.1%) and Renault (+59.9%) are among the best performers.

The Volvo EX/XC40 (+115.1%) surges to the pole position for the second time in the past 3 months with 5.1% share, albeit below the 5.8% it commanded in December. Leader over the Full Year 2025, the Volvo XC60 (-54.8%) collapses year-on-year but still manages a strong 2nd place. The Tesla Model Y (+68%) bounces back up to #3, distancing the VW ID.7 (-42.7%) and Polestar 4 (+123.3%) faring in totally opposed ways. The Toyota bZ4X (+260.5%) is up 27 spots to break into the Top 10 for the first time at #8. The Kia K4 SW does the same for its very first appearance in the charts at #9, probably all demo sales as the model hasn’t officially launched just yet. Notice also the Renault 5 (#19), BMW iX1 (#22), VW Tayron (#24) and Mercedes A Class (#29).

Previous post: Sweden Full Year 2025: Volvo XC60 grabs 2nd win, Tesla Model Y off -68.2%

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

Full January 2026 Top 51 All brands and Top XXX All models below.