Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: World March 2013 Roundup
After studying how Chinese brands may finally find their mojo at home and before I hit you with a few impressive sales figures for April let’s take a bit of time for our much anticipated World Roundup for March.
This month the worldwide star is the Nissan Qashqai…
So yes, the Qashqai is once again the star of the month, and is actually even more impressive in March than it was in February. It takes the lead year-to-date in Spain, breaks its ranking, volume and share records in Italy at #6 with 4,142 sales and 3.1%, climbs onto the podium in Austria for the very first time and lodges a 2nd consecutive month at a record #5 in the overall European models ranking with a massive 29,116 sales. Told you.
The third hero of the month is Italian, making it 2 in 3. For the first time, the Fiat 500L outsells its ‘inspiration’ the Fiat 500 at home in Italy, ranking at an outstanding 4th place.
Finally the last big event worldwide happened in Australia. For the first time in the history of automobile there, the Top 4 manufacturers are 100% Asian this month (Toyota-Mazda-Nissan-Hyundai), with local manufacturer Holden relegated to 5th place and passed by Hyundai for the first time. It would be like Renault ranking 5th in France below Volkswagen, Nissan, Toyota and Ford…
In other worldwide news:
Dacia is starting to make some waves in Ireland where it launched last January simultaneously with the UK, placing the Duster at The Duster for its part breaks into the Indian Top 10 for the first time at #10 with a record 6,313 sales
In India, the Maruti Dzire becomes only the third model to ever sell more than 20,000 monthly units after the Maruti Alto ( in March 2007 for the first time) and Swift ( in February 2012).
In Brazil the Hyundai HB20 is up a further 23% on a record month of February to reach an unbelievable 12,537 sales but remains in Norway the Mazda CX-5 stays at a world-best 2nd place but is now only 0.6% behind the VW Golf while the Nissan Leaf improves on February to hit a (new world-best) #4 spot.
The new generation Toyota RAV4 threatens traditional leader the Corolla in Taiwan while in Japan, the Toyota Aqua lodges its 6th month in a row in pole position and breaks the 30,000 monthly unit barrier for the first time ever at a record 33,693 sales.
In Turkey the Renault Symbol is back in charge thanks to the radically different new generation, in Poland the Toyota Yaris tops the ranking for the first time in 5 years ( since August 2008 exactly), in Romania the Dacia Dokker breaks into the Top 10 for the first time in any country in the world at #9 and the Mercedes A-Class lodges a fantastic 9th place in Portugal.
Finally in the US, the Ford Fusion breaks the 30,000 monthly unit mark for the first time and finishes Q1 at a record 80,558 sales while the Ford Escape also breaks its Quarter record at 72,943 units.
Previous World roundups:
World February 2013 Roundup: Nissan Qashqai pumps up the jam
World January 2013 Roundup: Low-cost range brings Renault back
World Full Year 2012 Roundup: Last Year’s Top 5 highlights
World December 2012 Roundup: Has the Chinese invasion started?
World November 2012 Roundup: When Hyundai cracked Brazil
World October 2012 Roundup: China, Japan and Austria in focus
World September 2012 Roundup: Ford Focus shines in China
World August 2012 Roundup: Subaru XV topples almighty Golf in Switzerland
World July 2012 Roundup: Geely CK writes history in Ukraine
World June 2012 Roundup: Hyundai Santa Fe and Ford Focus shine
World May 2012 Roundup: GM and Toyota Etios make headlines
World April 2012 Roundup: Maruti Swift and Mazda CX-5 impress
Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars Blog, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.
Comments
Join the conversation
If I understand the French mindset, and I think I do, those two Japanese anomalous blips can be understood like this: 1) The Yaris is made in France, so it is "acceptable." 2) The Qashqai is made by the Renault-Nissan alliance, and so it is seen as "quasi-French." Otherwise, neither one would have made the list.
I think the most incredible statistic here is that the Nissan Leaf is number 4 in Norway! I travel there a lot for work and am always surprised by the number of leafs i see, but had no idea it was so high on the list. Norway only have a population of approx. 5 million, but they buy a large number of new vehicles and are fairly affluent. I guess the tax breaks must be doing their part.