2010 New Car Sales Around The World: Mostly Up (With Exceptions)

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

New car sales around the world are mostly rebounding – except in the markets where they had been artificially stimulated last year. This list will be continuously updated as new data becomes available.

In China, sales rose 32.37 percent in 2010 to 18,061,900 vehicles. Automobile production rose to 18,264,700 units, an increase of 32.44 percent. China established a new world record, previously held by the U.S.A. with sales of 17.4 million units in 2000.

In the U.S.A., new car sales climbed 11 percent to 11.59 million units.

In Japan, sales rose 7.5 percent to a total of 4,956,136 vehicles (including minivehicles.)

In India, new car sales rose 31 percent to 1.87 million, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers data cited in the Wall Street Journal.

In Russia, new car and light vehicle sales rose 30 percent to 1.91 million units, according to data provided by the Association of European Businesses’ Automobile Manufacturers Committee to the Moscow Times.

In the EU as a whole , sales dropped -5.5 percent to 13,360,599 units.


In Austria , sales grew 2.9 percent to 328,563 units.


In Belgium , sales grew 14.9 percent to 547,347 units.


In Bulgaria , sales dropped -28.9 percent to 16,257 units.


In The Czech Republic , sales grew 4.7 percent to 169,236 units.


In Denmark , sales grew 34.8 percent to 151,550 units.


In Estonia , sales grew 7.5 percent to 8,848 units.


In Finland , sales grew 23.6 percent to 111,968 units.


In France , sales dropped -2.2 percent to 2,251,669 units.


In Germany , sales dropped -23.4 percent to 2,916,260 units.


In Greece , sales dropped -35.8 percent to 141,499 units.


In Hungary , sales dropped -25.1 percent to 45,081 units.


In Ireland , sales grew 54.7 percent to 88,373 units.


In Italy , sales dropped -9.2 percent to 1,960,282 units.


In Latvia , sales grew 32.9 percent to 4,976 units.


In Lithuania , sales grew 13.8 percent to 7,970 units.


In Luxembourg , sales grew 5.2 percent to 49,726 units.


In Netherlands , sales grew 24.9 percent to 483,619 units.


In Poland , sales grew dropped 4.1 percent to 333,539 units.


In Portugal , sales grew 38.8 percent to 223,491 units.


In Romania , sales dropped -18.5 percent to 94,541 units.


In Slovakia , sales dropped -14.3 percent to 64,033 units.


In Slovenia , sales grew 6.3 percent to 59,226 units.


In Spain , sales grew 3.1 percent to 982,015 units.


In Sweden , sales grew 35.7 percent to 289,684 units.


In The United Kingdom , sales grew 1.8 percent to 2,030,846 units.

In the Philippines, new car sales rose 27.2 percent to 168,490 units, surpassing the industry’s highest ever sales of 162,000 units in 1996, the Manila Bulleting writes.

Israel celebrates a record year for vehicle sales. 216,430 vehicles were sold in 2010, up 25.3 percent from 2009, according to data provided by the Vehicle Importers Association to Globes.

Malaysia’s new car sales rose 13 percent in 2010 to a record 605,156 vehicles, the Malaysian Automotive Association told The Nikkei [sub]

In Australia, sales of new cars and trucks jumped 10.5 percent to 1.04 million. This was only the third time the million mark has been broken in a calendar year, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries told The Australian.

In New Zealand, new car sales in 2010 were up 14 percent to 62,029, while sales of new commercial vehicles rose 17.8 percent to 18,424, according to data by the New Zealand Transport Agency, cited by TVNZ.

In Argentina, vehicle sales climbed 29 percent, the Argentina Automobiles Dealer Association told Bloomberg.

In Brazil, auto sales expanded 11 percent last year, the national car dealers’ association FENABRAVE told AFP. A total 3.3 million light vehicles were sold. Truck sales jumped 44 percent. The all vehicle total is 3.51 million, a plus of 11.9 percent.

In Chile, sales of new automobiles and light trucks surged 68 percent to 289,280 units sold, the Anac automotive association told the Wall Street Journal. Anac expects 325,000 new automobiles and light trucks to be sold in 2011.

In Turkey, the market recovered after a deep decline. Sales grew 30 percent to 750.000 units, the Gerson Lehmann Group reports. Last time the Turkish market had seen these levels was in 2005, when sales stood at 758.000 units. The group expects the Turkish market to be close to 900.000 units in 2011, and to cross the 1 million mark in 2013.

In Switzerland, new car sales climbed 10.6 percent to about 294,000, the highest number of cars sold since 2002, automobile importer association auto-suisse told Reuters.

In Canada, sales rose 6.6 percent from a weak 2009, Reuters says.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Natasha Natasha on Feb 15, 2011

    Hmmm... tough read. Dumb question... is the US recovering or not? What part of the 11% is GM? Im just an outside obverver trying to figure out what's going on.

    • Doctor olds Doctor olds on Feb 15, 2011

      GM total U.S. sales were up 7.2% from 8 brands to 4. The 4 alone were up 23% if memory serves. Ford was up 19.1% Toyota down a fraction of a % Honda up 6.9%

  • Doctor olds Doctor olds on Feb 15, 2011

    If you are interested, Here is a link to Ward's autoworld. It is a respected industry publication that compiles sales and production data with monthly updates. They provide a lot of data for free. You can see the sales by company, but not broken down by division or model. Examples are- all GM, Lexus-Toyota-Scion =>Toyota, Honda-Acura=>Honda, Nissan-Infiniti=>Nissan, etc. You have to subscribe to get detail. http://wardsauto.com/keydata/

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