Car sales in Europe got a significant boost in November, up 13,25% to 1.116.838 sales, the second-best improvement this year. That pulls up the year-to-date total to 12.967.470, which is an improvement of 8,36% on 2014. This means we’re still on track to cross the 14 million unit barrier this year. To hit that threshold, December sales need to improve by only 3,7% and we’ve been below that figure only three months this year.
After a short hiatus in October, Volkswagen Group and Renault-Nissan are back as the biggest gaining manufacturers in November, this time joined by Ford Motor Company in third place. The only manufacturer to lose volume this month is DRB-Hicom with the Lotus sports car brand, down a mere 12 units after more than doubling in October. Tesla Motors continues its winning spell, followed by Mahindra&Mahindra thanks to its SSangYong brand, and Tata Motors thanks to both Jaguar and Land Rover increasing more than 70%.
At brand level, Volkswagen’s challengers are adding the most volume, with Renault, Ford and Opel/Vauxhall growing at least 11.800 units, while VW adds just 534 units, but remains firmly in the lead. In November 2014, VW sold more cars than Ford and Renault together, and the fallout from the Diesel Scandal isn’t fierce enough to knock the brand from its throne, but it does cause some cracks in the frame. More interesting is that Renault has come within 25 units of Ford for second place, leaving the GM unit behind and making sure that third place for the full year 2015 is now as good as certain.
The German luxury brands have turned their ranking upside down in November, with Mercedes-Benz ahead of BMW and Audi down to third place (8th overall). Mercedes benefits from strong compact car sales and a freshened line-up of SUVs, while Audi suffers from the model changeover of the A4.
Nissan is outsold by Toyota and Citroën this month and its desired title of Europe’s best selling Asian brand, which it took earlier this year, is now in jeopardy for the full-year 2015, as Toyota is less than 2.200 units behind and beat Nissan by more than 5.000 sales in November.
Volvo has an excellent month with sales up almost a quarter, but it’s not the fastest growing brand in the top-20 as Mazda rides a wave of new model introductions to a 40% improvement on last year. The fastest growing brand in Europe this months is Cadillac, going from 19 units last year to 53 sales this November. And the #2 fastest growing brand was also American: Tesla grew by 142% to 1.342 sales, more than 25 times as many as Cadillac.
No big losers this month, as Lancia-Chrysler was the biggest one at -595 units, followed by Lexus and Seat. Alfa Romeo scores its third monthly improvement this year and DS its first as all of its three models were up thanks to their facelifts.
November winners and losers
| Manufacturer biggest volume increase | Renault-Nissan | 17.613 | Manufacturer biggest volume lost | DRB-Hicom (Proton / Lotus) | -12 | |
| Daimler AG | 13.475 | |||||
| Ford Motor Corp. | 12.831 | |||||
| Manufacturer biggest % increase | Tesla Motors | 142,6% | Manufacturer biggest % lost | DRB-Hicom (Proton / Lotus) | -16,9% | |
| Mahindra & Mahindra | 85,1% | |||||
| Tata Motors | 75,0% | |||||
| Brand biggest volume increase | Renault | 13.152 | Brand biggest volume lost | Lancia-Chrysler | -595 | |
| Ford | 12.833 | Lexus | -368 | |||
| Opel/Vauxhall | 11.826 | Seat | -239 | |||
| Brand biggest % increase | Cadillac | 178,9% | Brand biggest % lost | Tata | -89,3% | |
| Tesla | 142,6% | DR | -77,1% | |||
| SSangYong | 86,4% | Chevrolet | -73,4% |
January – November 2015 sales
We may finish 2015 with no manufacturers in the red, as Honda almost halved its loss from almost -5.200 units until October to -2.735 units at the end of November. Volkswagen, Renault and Nissan are set to finish the year as the biggest winners, with Renault also passing Opel-Vauxhall for #3 spot in Europe. As said above, Nissan will have a tough fight with Toyota in December to claim the title of best selling Asian brand in Europe.
Mercedes-Benz has doubled its lead over BMW in November and looks set to finish 2015 ahead of its rival, but still behind Audi. Jaguar seems ready to reclaim its position above Lexus this year, and with the F-Pace coming up in 2016, the British brand should be able to hold that place for a few years.
Jeep will be the second biggest FCA brand after Fiat, having outsold Lancia-Chrysler and Alfa Romeo this year thanks to being the fastest growing brand so far, and the only brand to more than double its sales of 2014.
January – November 2015 winners and losers
| Manufacturer biggest volume increase | Volkswagen Group | 184.507 | Manufacturer biggest volume lost | Honda | -2.735 | |
| Renault-Nissan | 159.462 | |||||
| Daimler AG | 113.836 | |||||
| Manufacturer biggest % increase | Mahindra & Mahindra | 70,0% | Manufacturer biggest % lost | Honda | -2,2% | |
| Tesla Motors | 66,4% | |||||
| SAIC MG | 30,8% | |||||
| Brand biggest volume increase | Volkswagen | 86.449 | Brand biggest volume lost | Chevrolet | -35.228 | |
| Renault | 76.566 | DS | -11.673 | |||
| Nissan | 74.183 | Lancia-Chrysler | -9.730 | |||
| Brand biggest % increase | Jeep | 134,7% | Brand biggest % lost | Chevrolet | -94,8% | |
| Smart | 82,2% | Great Wall | -63,4% | |||
| SSangYong | 71,1% | DR | -18,6% |
November 2015 brand ranking
| Brand | November 2015 | November 2014 | change | |
| 1 | Volkswagen | 133.201 | 132.667 | 0,4% |
| 2 | Ford | 78.792 | 65.959 | 19,5% |
| 3 | Renault | 78.767 | 65.615 | 20,0% |
| 4 | Opel/Vauxhall | 75.306 | 63.480 | 18,6% |
| 5 | Peugeot | 67.254 | 57.946 | 16,1% |
| 6 | Mercedes-Benz | 62.560 | 52.633 | 18,9% |
| 7 | BMW | 60.688 | 54.491 | 11,4% |
| 8 | Audi | 58.898 | 56.382 | 4,5% |
| 9 | Fiat | 51.025 | 42.961 | 18,8% |
| 10 | Skoda | 50.192 | 44.529 | 12,7% |
| 11 | Toyota | 43.892 | 40.984 | 7,1% |
| 12 | Citroën | 40.409 | 37.798 | 6,9% |
| 13 | Nissan | 38.667 | 36.698 | 5,4% |
| 14 | Hyundai | 35.720 | 31.768 | 12,4% |
| 15 | Kia | 29.519 | 25.140 | 17,4% |
| 16 | Dacia | 29.323 | 26.957 | 8,8% |
| 17 | Volvo | 27.159 | 22.014 | 23,4% |
| 18 | Seat | 24.774 | 25.013 | -1,0% |
| 19 | Mazda | 17.109 | 12.132 | 41,0% |
| 20 | Suzuki | 13.791 | 10.937 | 26,1% |
| 21 | Mini | 13.773 | 13.747 | 0,2% |
| 22 | Land Rover | 13.731 | 7.863 | 74,6% |
| 23 | Honda | 11.282 | 8.823 | 27,9% |
| 24 | Mitsubishi | 10.536 | 8.808 | 19,6% |
| 25 | Smart | 7.961 | 4.413 | 80,4% |
| 26 | Jeep | 7.405 | 4.918 | 50,6% |
| 27 | DS | 6.104 | 5.268 | 15,9% |
| 28 | Porsche | 4.744 | 4.477 | 6,0% |
| 29 | Lancia-Chrysler | 4.590 | 5.185 | -11,5% |
| 30 | Alfa Romeo | 4.544 | 4.284 | 6,1% |
| 31 | Jaguar | 3.574 | 2.002 | 78,5% |
| 32 | Lexus | 3.114 | 3.482 | -10,6% |
| 33 | Subaru | 3.086 | 2.637 | 17,0% |
| 34 | Tesla | 1.344 | 554 | 142,6% |
| 35 | SSangYong | 1.338 | 718 | 86,4% |
| 36 | Infiniti | 425 | 299 | 42,1% |
| 37 | Maserati | 366 | 351 | 4,3% |
| 38 | SAIC MG | 250 | 170 | 47,1% |
| 39 | Lada | 185 | 132 | 40,2% |
| 40 | Bentley | 171 | 131 | 30,5% |
| 41 | Ferrari | 159 | 136 | 16,9% |
| 42 | Aston Martin | 118 | 81 | 45,7% |
| 43 | Chevrolet | 81 | 304 | -73,4% |
| 44 | Dodge | 61 | 46 | 32,6% |
| 45 | Lotus | 59 | 71 | -16,9% |
| 46 | Cadillac | 53 | 19 | 178,9% |
| 47 | Mahindra | 52 | 33 | 57,6% |
| 48 | Rolls Royce | 33 | 37 | -10,8% |
| 49 | Lamborghini | 32 | 48 | -33,3% |
| 51 | Great Wall | 8 | 23 | -65,2% |
| 50 | DR | 8 | 35 | -77,1% |
| 52 | Tata | 3 | 28 | -89,3% |
| 53 | Bugatti | 1 | 0 | – |
January – November 2015 brand ranking
| Brand | Jan-Nov 2015 | Market share | Jan-Nov 2014 | Market share | change YoY | |
| 1 | Volkswagen | 1.570.958 | 12,1% | 1.484.509 | 12,4% | 5,8% |
| 2 | Ford | 955.017 | 7,4% | 891.989 | 7,5% | 7,1% |
| 3 | Renault | 873.471 | 6,7% | 796.905 | 6,7% | 9,6% |
| 4 | Opel/Vauxhall | 863.647 | 6,7% | 812.831 | 6,8% | 6,3% |
| 5 | Peugeot | 773.720 | 6,0% | 723.116 | 6,0% | 7,0% |
| 6 | Audi | 712.461 | 5,5% | 676.848 | 5,7% | 5,3% |
| 7 | Mercedes-Benz | 679.263 | 5,2% | 605.812 | 5,1% | 12,1% |
| 8 | BMW | 674.635 | 5,2% | 615.692 | 5,1% | 9,6% |
| 9 | Fiat | 605.336 | 4,7% | 543.649 | 4,5% | 11,3% |
| 10 | Skoda | 567.611 | 4,4% | 532.487 | 4,5% | 6,6% |
| 11 | Nissan | 513.645 | 4,0% | 439.462 | 3,7% | 16,9% |
| 12 | Toyota | 511.490 | 3,9% | 488.278 | 4,1% | 4,8% |
| 13 | Citroën | 505.157 | 3,9% | 485.344 | 4,1% | 4,1% |
| 14 | Hyundai | 425.708 | 3,3% | 389.900 | 3,3% | 9,2% |
| 15 | Kia | 358.557 | 2,8% | 329.666 | 2,8% | 8,8% |
| 16 | Dacia | 341.478 | 2,6% | 334.323 | 2,8% | 2,1% |
| 17 | Seat | 311.604 | 2,4% | 299.177 | 2,5% | 4,2% |
| 18 | Volvo | 250.098 | 1,9% | 229.166 | 1,9% | 9,1% |
| 19 | Mazda | 193.316 | 1,5% | 163.097 | 1,4% | 18,5% |
| 20 | Mini | 165.418 | 1,3% | 139.981 | 1,2% | 18,2% |
| 21 | Suzuki | 164.475 | 1,3% | 150.567 | 1,3% | 9,2% |
| 22 | Land Rover | 128.803 | 1,0% | 109.918 | 0,9% | 17,2% |
| 23 | Honda | 120.642 | 0,9% | 123.377 | 1,0% | -2,2% |
| 24 | Mitsubishi | 119.965 | 0,9% | 93.025 | 0,8% | 29,0% |
| 25 | Smart | 89.539 | 0,7% | 49.153 | 0,4% | 82,2% |
| 26 | Jeep | 79.458 | 0,6% | 33.857 | 0,3% | 134,7% |
| 27 | DS | 68.682 | 0,5% | 80.355 | 0,7% | -14,5% |
| 28 | Porsche | 64.678 | 0,5% | 49.987 | 0,4% | 29,4% |
| 29 | Lancia-Chrysler | 57.442 | 0,4% | 67.172 | 0,6% | -14,5% |
| 30 | Alfa Romeo | 52.452 | 0,4% | 54.498 | 0,5% | -3,8% |
| 31 | Jaguar | 35.889 | 0,3% | 26.800 | 0,2% | 33,9% |
| 32 | Lexus | 35.408 | 0,3% | 28.193 | 0,2% | 25,6% |
| 33 | Subaru | 34.751 | 0,3% | 31.570 | 0,3% | 10,1% |
| 34 | SSangYong | 13.044 | 0,1% | 7.624 | 0,1% | 71,1% |
| 35 | Tesla | 12.492 | 0,1% | 7.509 | 0,1% | 66,4% |
| 36 | Maserati | 5.752 | 0,0% | 5.363 | 0,0% | 7,3% |
| 37 | Infiniti | 5.057 | 0,0% | 3.499 | 0,0% | 44,5% |
| 38 | SAIC MG | 2.874 | 0,0% | 2.198 | 0,0% | 30,8% |
| 39 | Ferrari | 2.560 | 0,0% | 2.379 | 0,0% | 7,6% |
| 40 | Bentley | 2.259 | 0,0% | 2.279 | 0,0% | -0,9% |
| 41 | Chevrolet | 1.944 | 0,0% | 37.172 | 0,3% | -94,8% |
| 42 | Lada | 1.739 | 0,0% | 1.427 | 0,0% | 21,9% |
| 43 | Aston Martin | 1.522 | 0,0% | 1.436 | 0,0% | 6,0% |
| 44 | Lotus | 788 | 0,0% | 609 | 0,0% | 29,4% |
| 45 | Lamborghini | 774 | 0,0% | 531 | 0,0% | 45,8% |
| 46 | Dodge | 577 | 0,0% | 655 | 0,0% | -11,9% |
| 47 | Rolls Royce | 548 | 0,0% | 604 | 0,0% | -9,3% |
| 48 | Cadillac | 500 | 0,0% | 339 | 0,0% | 47,5% |
| 49 | Mahindra | 491 | 0,0% | 337 | 0,0% | 45,7% |
| 50 | Tata | 348 | 0,0% | 402 | 0,0% | -13,4% |
| 51 | DR | 214 | 0,0% | 263 | 0,0% | -18,6% |
| 52 | Great Wall | 138 | 0,0% | 377 | 0,0% | -63,4% |
| 53 | Bugatti | 12 | 0,0% | 12 | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 54 | Daihatsu | 8 | 0,0% | 10 | 0,0% | -20,0% |