Australian Made Sales Ford/Holden : 2000-18

Some early Holden models



Australians were not happy to lose their car manufacturing. It had traditionally been based around large cars and protected by import duty. When the duty was being phased out some smaller producers went, leaving GM Holden, Ford and Toyota left. GM did some exporting, Ford very little and Toyota a lot. 



In May, 2013 Ford announced it was ending its production. By

Taiwan Production (Brand) : 2017-18

This is a commonly used traditional gesture in Taiwan


In Asia, nurturing and protecting local industry is a very high priority. A classic case is the Taiwanese vehicle industry. 250,000 vehicles were made in 2018, with eleven brands represented, although there are seven producers. Still, that's a lot of manufacturers for a relatively small number actually made.

Kouzui Toyota: They are the

Switzerland Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

Switzerland is considered a stable country and its car market seems to be the same. The BMW Group hardly changed its sales volume for the past three years, with Mercedes and Audi moving around a little more. It's toward the bottom end there is more going on.

Alfa Romeo has gone past Tesla and Porsche with the others also tussling with each other. That said overall its not exactly seismic in

India Production (Brand) : 2017-18

Tata Tiago (Parking style not recommended)


Now that total vehicle production has passed 5 million, you would think that import duty would be reduced or eliminated in India, right? Er, no. Which makes me wonder why it exists other than as too often protectionism. Mind you the world - especially Asia - is rife with this very mentality. Lip service is paid to two way trade while the opposite is

DS Global Model Sales : 2018

PSA decided that creating a semi-premium brand was a smart decision and why not? The profit margins are higher for a start. The problem is brand awareness and loyalty are important in the premium arena. It takes many years to earn that reputation and the company know that.

After an initial burst of sales from the first entry - the DS3 - other models were added but then things seemed to fall

Korean Domestic Production (Brand) : 2017-18

Local total vehicle production has been dropping lately in Korea. Hyundai managed to keep things even in 2018 but all of the rest all lost out in some way. Kia (-2%) and SsangYong (-3%) were marginal losers but the others a little more so.

While that sounds negative, protection of the domestic market allows the total numbers of production to be substantial. Of course, an aggressive export

France Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

Total premium sales are following a predictable pattern, losing sales in 2018 after years of strong growth. It will be interesting to see if its a blip or a trend. A quarter of a million is well short of the UK's 750,000 or Germany's million p.a. Maybe that is in part due to France being a large car manufacturer but without a premium marque to call its own. Or maybe an egalitarian mentality.

Honda's UK Plant Closure

Nearly 200,000 Civics made in Europe, with sales there under 45,000 


I am apolitical but politics can and does affect our lives. Trade tension between the USA and China, China with many nations, the US with the EU, potentially the EU and the UK. All done by politicians. Of course industry, media and individuals use such events to prove their opinions right. A minimal knowledge of a subject

Jaguar i-Pace Global Sales : 2018 (By nation)

At home in town....


The sort of people who thus far have bought electric vehicles - especially Tesla - are not your typical motorist. They love all the nuances of range, charging points, technical data on how the system is working. They are very forgiving about computer glitches and look forward to patches that will sort out issues.

Many are tribal in feeling protective of their chosen brand

Peugeot Global Model Sales : 2018

Who would want to be a car executive. After establishing good sales in a country, the rug gets pulled from under you. That's what happened to Peugeot in Iran. The 405 and the 206 were going well there and then sanctions squash that. The 3008 and 5008 SUVs came to the rescue and minimised the damage of Iran and a poor year in China. Still, an 18% fall in sales isn't a good look.

Swiss / Austria JLR Comparison : 2010-18

These two nations are close in many ways. Even the number of cars sold here is similar, over the past nine years it's 311,800 to 330,600. However, the Swiss do buy more premium cars so this should favour that country. Interestingly Austria started making Jaguar cars recently, the E-Pace and i-Pace.

The data: Switzerland has bought 29,000 LRs and 9,000 Jaguar cars over this time for a toal of

Citroën Global Model Sales : 2018

Citroën came under the control of Peugeot in 1974, which reigned in the innovative but not always profitable company. Perhaps at that stage, Citroën should have moved more upmarket, but that would have affected volume and jobs. That was not something that would have gone down well, so the brand became a version of Peugeot, collaborating but also competing.

Sales peaked at just under the 1.5

Lebanon Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

Downtown Beirut perhaps?


Premium sales have been falling for the past three years as we see below. At least the downward trajectory is slowing (what it doesn't show is that sales were up 30% in 2015). The total each year is a round the 4,000 mark, which was 12% of the total market in 2018. Compared to NZ's 9.3%, that's quite high.

One thing I don't get is the world's obsession with German

Opel/Vauxhall Global Model Sales : 2018

When GM closed its Chevrolet brand and then sold off Opel/Vauxhall, Europe was now finished for The General. Well technically not because GM is coming back, selling e-bikes named Ariv from early to the middle of 2019. I suppose that doesn't count.

Now under the PSA umbrella, the dual named brand must prove itself to a new owner. Early signs are good, with loss turned quickly into profit.

Sweden Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

Wow, talk about supporting your own! In Sweden they take it to a whole new level. Half of all premium cars are Volvos, a rate consistently maintained over the past three years. Even with the total falling 6.7% in 2018, its share was protected. BMW and Mercedes are solid but unable to seriously challenge the local hero.

Audi meanwhile has been falling consistently. Further down, JLR has fallen

Serbia Car/LCV Sales : 2018

This was the best year since 2011 with a 6% increase for 2018. It's a challenge to get data for this nation of the Balkan region but finally here it is. Green shows market gain and Škoda certainly managed that, taking back the top spot with authority. Fiat too did well, but not by enough to retain its top ranking.

Yellow is increase but with a reduced slice of the pie with Toyota notably in

NZ Top 45 Models : 2018

Getting data for sales by model for NZ isn't easy. I managed to get a top 45 which includes light commercial vehicles as otherwise it would have been an even shorter list. Anyway, now for a few points of note.

Japan dominates here with 60% of the list total. Toyota in particular does well, thanks to having such a strong presence in the fleet market. The USA is next, thanks to both Ford and GM

Netherlands Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

The total in premium sales has held up here well, assisted by electric cars that for now are more likely to be in this class. With a change in assistance offered, 2019 should see Tesla and Jaguar drop off significantly. BMW is miles ahead, aided by the fact that the MINI is also made here. Volvo got past Audi and quite easily while Tesla and Jaguar made hay while the sun shone.

South Africa Top 50 Models : 2018

If we ignore the strong selling pick-up trucks and stick to cars, then VW comes out one and two. They are both the same model, but the Vivo is an older version. Both are amazingly popular. Then moving down the rest of the list, it is quite a mixture. The colours represent country or region of origin, and by looking at the key to the right of the chart, it becomes clearer.

Japan is the leading

European Sales By Nation : 2018 (Alternative Fuels)

The move toward alternative fueled vehicles can be confusing. There are various types and each has its own acronym to differentiate it form other versions. I've put them into two categories which are below, to see how European nations are faring in encouraging people to switch to such vehicles.

Only nations that report the data to AREA are here. I won't comment on how some countries are

Europe Passenger Car Sales (By Nation) : 2018

Registrations within what is traditionally known as Western Europe were 14.2 million, down 1%. Eastern Europe was 3.3 million, up 10%. Combined it was a +1% increase. The list below is comprises more nations that ACEA provide with their press release, however that organisation does provide most of the sales figures here.

I have added countries, which in some cases has data that includes LCVs.

Moldova Passenger Car Sales : 2018

Registrations were up a healthy 14% in 2018, and the best sales year for a decade. Next door neighbour Romania provides the top selling brand, with one not too far to the north the second best selling. Green shows which brand was up, yellow as well but with a reduced market share and blue was simply down.

 The two models that were most sought after were the Dacia Logan (416) and Duster (346).

Russia Top 50 Models : 2018 (PC & LCV)

With the Kia Rio bumped off the top spot and down to third place, two models from local hero Lada took pride of place as one-two. That said, 12 of the Top 50 are from Hyundai - Kia. Japanese companies take 14 places with no less than six different brands. Ligth Commercials are also included, so a few of them can be found on the list below.

The Lada Vesta had a 40% jump in sales, well above

Europe Passenger Car Sales : 2018

Car sales for Europe (excluding Russia & CIS) were flat for the year. After a few years of reasonable growth, it seems that decreasing is sales is on the cards for 2019. Registrations were just over 15.4 million as we can see on the chart. Green is up and blue down.

Many of the top ten ranked brands didn't do that well, with top selling premium marques if anything leading the way. Just

France / Italy JLR Comparison : 2010-18

These two nations are quite close both in size and geographically. Italy has averaged 1.75 million sales over the past nine years, while France have just exceeded 2 million. So which nation prefers JLR products?

The data: Both nations have some Land Rovers registered as commercial vehicles so are not included here. As the numbers aren't excessively different, that cancels each other out on

UK Top 50 Models : 2018

Sales were down in the UK so it stands to reason that many of the models also fell. The Ford Fiesta did manage to hold up well and cemented its top ranking. Ford got three in the top nine models, a result it has been achieving for many decades.

Vauxhall was listed as a US brand but with its purchase by PSA and the fact the name is British had me switching it to a European brand. The Opel

Kazakhstan Vehicle Passenger Car Sales : 2018

There have been some boom times here followed by a large crash. The country's car sales are currently coming out of the latter. How were things for 2018? Below are all vehicle sales, including trucks. Green healthy growth, yellow less so and blue decrease.

The ups and downs here are hard to believe. Lada has won back its top spot, lost for two years. Toyota grew well but not enough it seems.

Poland Passenger Car Sales : 2018

The writing says if you park like this, you're lucky 
not to get towed away. They look relieved

Poland had a healthy 9.3% increase, although things slowed toward the end of the year. A minus 5.5% was the result for December. Below in the chart, green shows growth in market share, yellow increase but loss of said share and blue was sales decrease. Registrations were the best for many a year. In

UK Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

The UK is a happy hunting ground for German car manufacturers. perhaps excessively so. Even Audi's heavy sales drop in 2018 didn't allow JLR to get within a bulls roar of them. Or course, Land Rover in particular have been blighted by an almost total reliance on diesel engines, which are are increasingly vilified. In that, I was surprised that LR sales held up as well as they did.

A trend in

Germany / Russia JLR Comparison : 2010-18

Not so long back, Russia was touted to become the largest car market in Europe by volume but things didn't pan out that way. Sales tumbled and JLR wasn't immune as we can see below. From 2010 to 2018, an average of 2.1 million cars and LCVs were sold, compared to Germany's 3.2 million passenger cars. In addition, some Land Rovers are sold as LCVS which aren't counted although not a huge number

Brazil Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

There are some interesting facts to be gleaned. One is there aren't that many premium brands sold here, neither is the demand for premium cars that high. Audi has been having a poor run, almost overtaken by JLR. That assembling Land Rover vehicles in Brazil seems to have done nothing to boost sales. Jaguar has had a fine run from obscurity but it will be interesting if it can continue the

Mauitius Passenger Car Sales : 2018

The picture has nothing to do with cars, but who cares? It looks great


The statistics here is for passenger cars only. It's not easy to interpret the data because of how it is made available but it is private cars and SUVs. The number reached this year was 8,328, a smidgen over 2017 and a record. In fact the total this year nearly double 2010.

Kia held on to top easily enough but Hyundai had

Lebanon Passenger Car Sales : 2018

Downtown Beirut maybe?


Total sales were down 11.3% for the full year and -31.0% for December. I have colour coded the list to see how brands have gone. Blue means loss of sales and market share. Yellow sales are down but at least they gained some share, Green is all the brands that managed to increase sales.

Kia and Hyundai are the top two but conceded ground to the chasers. Suzuki and

Japan Kei Models : 2018

Kei cars mean light automobile, a category created in 1949. By meeting certain criteria, the owner gets tax, insurance and in some cases parking benefits. They are mainly sold in Japan and only Japanese brands compete in the segment. In 2018, nearly 1.5 million were sold in Japan so the Kei car remains popular today.

In the chart, blue is down and green is up. Total sales were up 2.5% in 2018

Bosnia-Herzegovina Passenger Car Sales : 2018

Sales were slowing as the year came to a close but ended up at +1.1% for the year. That's a trend across Europe but this is a mild reaction compared to most as new emissions standards kick in. In the chart below green shows increase and blue decrease.

Škoda and VW now command over a third of the total registrations, with the former pulling away from its owner brand. Mind you it has been the

Australia Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

Sales of premium cars have been in steady decline recently, 113,000 then 104,500 and now 97,000. There isn't much movement on rankings but some are doing better than others. Mercedes numbers are a little iffy, trying to separate them from CVs but I think it's about right. Land Rover had a poor 2018 as did Porsche. Tesla figures could be anywhere but one source had these numbers.

USA / China JLR Comparison : 2010-18

Two very different markets despite being similar in size. Over the past nine years, the USA has averaged 15.6 million sales and China 18.2 million. The US started out in this period as the bigger market for JLR but China took over. However, a sales slump in China for 2018 has the US back as the bigger market for JLR.

The data:

The USA has seen solid growth over the time with the split

Nissan Flexes Its Muscles

The X-Trail isn't exactly flavour of the month in Europe anyway

It amazes me the shallowness of most journalists covering the car industry. They swallow the spin they are fed without doing any digging for the real story. In some cases, the spin suits their opinion so they promote it fully knowing it is misleading. Thankfully there are still some journalists that live up to that designation and

UK Production : Brand Net Contribution 2017-18

Below is a chart that shows UK production by manufacturer. It then has UK passenger car sales. Finally exports in excess of sales. In other words, subtracting UK sales from production gives the export number. Then at the bottom it shows whether the UK is a net exporter or importer of passenger cars. The figures represent thousands so three zeros need to be added.





2017
Prod
UK

Pan-European Top 10 Models : 2017-18

The Top 10 had two brand new entries in 2018, the Toyota Yaris and the Renault / Dacia Sandero. The Škoda Octavia and Opel /Vauxhall Astra made way for them. The VW Golf and Renault Clio both completed their 23rd year in this illustrious company over the past 23 years that I have been tabulating it. The difference is the Golf has been number one on 17 occasions while the Clio's best ranking

Japan / Korea JLR Comparison : 2010-18

Can we learn anything from this comparison. Absolutely. They are in close proximity but there are clearly differences in mentality. Korea has import duty applied to vehicles entering the country, Japan does not. Sales in Japan are three times the number. So JLR has a much easier time in Japan. Er...not so fast.

The data:

This covers the past  the past nine years, so the 1.4 million figure

Finland Top 50 Models : 2018

The super-popular Nissan Qashqai took the top spot in Finland for 2018, deposing Škoda's Octavia in the process. The Toyota Yaris was third, from the VW Golf and Toyota Auris. German models are the most common on the Top 50 chart, pipping the rest of Europe.





Rk
Brand
Model
2018
2017
+/-

Germany


1
Nissan
Qashqai
5,540
5,059
10%

17

Belgium Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

The first thing that struck me about this list was the consistency of the data. True, Audi was overtaken by Mercedes in 2016, which cannot be seen here. The gap has now widened too. JLR has been moving up nicely but nothing spectacular and certainly nothing to catch up to. Maybe Alfa Romeo will pass Porsche in 2019. Otherwise, it will be business as usual in this car loving nation.

UK Production 2018 Analysis

Can UK car manufacturing get itself out of the woods? Not soon anyway

A few years ago some (remaining nameless) felt the sky was the limit for UK vehicle manufacturing. I wasn't so optimistic. CV production was ridiculously poor with no obvious way of fixing that. Nissan was the main producer and it was running at capacity. JLR was growing fast but needed more UK capacity to increase the

Slovakia Top 50 Models : 2018

This is the country with the highest car manufacturing volume per capita. Škoda in particular does well with both Hyundai and Kia getting models high up the chart. Suzuki scores the top two models for Japanese brands and Ford Focus is the sole representative for the USA.





Rk
Brand
Model
2018
2017
+/-

Europe


1
Škoda
Fabia
5,433
5,308
2%

San Marino Passenger Car Sales : 2018

A nation that is a tiny enclave within Italy slips below the radar for most people but they do release sales data so it has its moment of fame on this website. I do find it concerning that 23 sales (1.8% of the total) is not revealed to the public. Mind you, in 2010 it was 12% so maybe I should count my blessings.

VW is number one for the 5th consecutive year with Audi slipping away. Jeep is

Poland Top 50 Models : 2018

Škoda sells well here and that shows on the list below. Toyota too is a popular brand and those models too feature often. Europe is clearly the main provider of the best selling cars but Japan too does OK.





Rk
Brand
Model
2018
2017
+/-

Europe


1
Škoda
Octavia
21,125
18,856
12%

19 models


2
Škoda
Fabia
19,679
19,047

China Top 50 Models : 2018 (Locally made)

If you can get a grasp of the Chinese market, you're doing better than me. It is a bewildering array of choice for the Chinese car buyer. Do people really need so many to choose from? In such a situation, I just focus on a few things and if something from that short list is appealing, the search stops there.

The Wuling Hongguang (a catchy name...not) got knocked off its perch by the Nissan

NZ Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

Like many other places, premium car sales in NZ are stalling. Is it a trend or a blip? We will see. What we can tell is that BMW Group passed Mercedes Benz in 2017 and just held of MB in 2018. Otherwise it was a steady ship, with a few changes at the bottom end. BMW is actually the third best selling marque but MINI kept them above the others.





Years
Brand
2018

2017

Italy Top 50 Models : 2018

One angry Panda, the Panda Cross


No surprise that Fiat has some of the top selling models but that is not as pronounced because Fiat's share of the market is lessening. It would be to improve margins one would have to conclude. One has to wonder how much longer the sole Lancia model, in the only market it is now sold will continue.

Jeep is doing really well and Ford is always strong here, so