Volvo Global Sales : 2025 (H1)

Volvo deliveries are down 9% for the six months to June. 354,000 units for 2025 is down by just over 34,000. So what is hot and what is not?

Models: The XC60 (picture above), XC90 and EX90 did well enough but the rest of the range was down and substantially. The EM90 electric MPV (picture bottom of page) made for the Chinese market seems to have flopped badly from the very beginning, considering the size of the BEV market in China.

Data & picture source: Volvo Cars.

Regions: Europe accounted for nearly half the sales this year (48%). Foreign brands have been suffering in China and despite Chinese ownership, Volvo hasn't been entirely immune. That said. a 10% fall is better than many. 

The US is the only region that has improved but I wonder if that was due to customers buying before prices rise. If so, we should see a drop in volume for the remainder of the year. 

BEV Regions: Volvo was going to be an electric car brand only by 2030 but that is no longer the plan. That is an obvious decision to make as we can see below. Electric sales are down 23% in 2025. The main region for Volvo regarding BEVs is Europe and that is down 32% YTD. 

Aston Martin Global Deliveries : 2025 (Q1)

Aston Martin continues to deliver exceptional cars to discerning motorists, those who are stirred but never shaken. The model above is the Vanquish, 

Uncertainties around US tariffs and the well established stiff tariffs China applies to luxury cars are something they have to contend with. 

Regions: For the first quarter of 2025, deliveries were up 5% to the Americas but one would expect will be down for the next quarter. The Europe (excluding the UK), Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region was down 9% and Asia, Pacific -4%. The UK managed a healthy 14% increase for 19% of the total or put another way 1 in 5 deliveries.

Models: It would be nice to have more detail but I appreciate what they do provide, which is much more than what most of their competitors do.

Sports cars are up 12%, the DBX SUV (picture to the right) down 16% and what Aston Martin calls 'Specials' (which I have labeled Valkyrie) down 69%. Overall still up slightly though.

Data & picture source: Aston Martin.

AM are using what they refer to as a "disciplined approach to production and stock optimisation". This is important to achieving profitability in any business and luxury car making is no different. The Valhalla (picture below) will start being delivered in the second half of the year. If you are thinking of securing one, only 999 will be made so don't dilly-dally.

Xpeng Deliveries/Production : 2023 - 25 (H1)

2023 started slowly, with sales down on 2022 but the G6 medium large crossover and the X9 large MPV (photo above) arrived. By the end of the year, deliveries were up 17%. 

The new models helped achieve a 171% increase for Q4 which ensured the year ended positively.

For 2024 deliveries were up 34% with a very healthy Q4 to thank for that. The P5 medium saloon car ended its run and was replaced by the Mona M03. 

Then the 2024 P7+ large saloon was introduced but didn't replace the existing P7. The Plus is less expensive but slightly larger than the P7 and will sell along side each other. The G9 medium large crossover has recently been refreshed which is a Tesla Y competitor (see image below). 

Deliveries for 2025 have already passed the full 2024 total. Q1 and Q2 2025 were up 331% and 242% respectively on the comparable quarter a year before. They were however only slightly up on the Q4 2024 figure which may indicate growth has now to a degree leveled off. 

For the years 2019-2022, simply click here.

BYD Passenger Car Deliveries : 2025 (H1)

I've been waiting for BYD to hit a ceiling but I'll have to wait a little longer. Deliveries of electric cars (BEVs) was up 39% and 42% in the first two quarters of 2025. With Tesla's slipping 13% downward, BYD has managed to go the other way and dramatically so. 

Adding hybrid sales, over a million units per quarter was achieved. That was up 58% and 15% for the first two quarters! At a time when many manufacturers would be content with maintaining volume, BYD is aggressively pushing forward. 

It will be interesting to see whether this growth will continue through the year. The second quarter growth would suggest things are indeed plateauing off. Hybrid vehicles are not performing as well as BEVs in 2025. YTD they are up 24% while BEV deliveries have increased 41%.

Not shown in the data below are commercial vehicles which made up just 0.5% of total volume in 2024. So far this year that has increased to 1.5%, with 32,683 units delivered and YTD growth of 460%. 

Data & picture source: BYD

Tesla Deliveries & Production Figures : 2025 (H1)

Tesla deliveries were 336,681 and 384,122 for the for the first two quarters of 2025. Combined, the H1 figure is 720,803. That was down 13% for both quarters when compared with the corresponding period of 2024. 

Production for 2025 is also down YTD, although by 16% and 0% when broken down into quarters. The second figure must be reassuring for investors as Q2 production was 26,000 units higher than deliveries, indicating an improving situation for customer orders. A refreshed Model Y will surely be helping.

What can be noted is that while 2023 deliveries were growing strongly, 2024 was flat despite the assistance of the Cybertruck. There are only so many customers wishing to buy an electric car and the competition is intense. 

To me, other products are looking fresh and up to date while Tesla's passenger car range is starting to look dated. In the case of the Cybertruck, its styling is different but also weird and has had too many issues. 

In 2024 I had to adjust the figures as the quarterly numbers didn't match the end of year totals. Tesla has now adjusted their figures as the shortfall was an error with Q1 2024. I find it surprising that I could see the figures not balancing and Tesla only picked it up in April 2025!

Data source: Tesla. The 2023/24 article can be seen by clicking here.

Turning Over A New Leaf

Electric car sales are not booming globally despite many governments offering incentives to buy. The Leaf has spearheaded Nissan's BEV efforts and it has been well received. The model has been manufactured at three sites as seen below. 

The data is not provided by Nissan so accuracy is reliant on other parties. A few may have been produced in 2010. Sources mention over 650,000 having been produced and these figures indicated the 700k mark may have been reached. 

Two series have been produced so far as the change in colour in the Year column indicates. 300,000 for Series 1 and 400,000 for Series 2.

Series three is coming after a slight break and it appears to be well executed. It majors on a nice interior and has a good mileage range per charge. It certainly would be on my shopping list if I was looking for an electric car, which I'm not. 

With the problems Nissan is currently facing, hopefully this new model will indeed help them to turn over a new leaf.

BYD's Miracle

BYD has been around for a while with reasonable success but its sales have recently surged. Most of its deliveries are in China but is aiming for half its sales to come from outside of China by 2030. Considering it sold 4 million cars in China in 2024 and may increase this figure by 2030, that is a challenging target. It's in a hurry.

I wrote about recent sales for 2023-24 and Q1 2025 which can be seen by clicking on the dates. I was impressed about the progress BYD was making. 

A leaked e-mail in late 2024 showed BYD asked suppliers for a 10% reduction in prices which sounded arbitrary to say the least. Once prices are negotiated, they should be honoured until the next round of negotiations. BYD responded at the time by saying the price cut wasn't mandatory. Still, it set off an alarm bell for me.

Now comes confirmation of something far darker. BYD decided to build its first plant outside of China in Brazil. However, work was stopped there late last year. Now The Public Labour Prosecutor's Office in the state of Bahia says 220 Chinese workers were rescued and is suing BYD and two of its contractors. Why? They said the standard of accommodation, work hours and some issues around workers rights were unacceptable. 

One would like to think this was an exception but we don't know. I mentioned earlier that the company seems in a hurry. That always concerns me as a hasty desire for success should never be at the expense of human rights. I know that sounds idealistic in this world where abuses in this regard are not uncommon. But having a major work construction closed down is serious and hopefully lessons are being learned. 

Whoever is responsible for this situation will be held accountable and I don't know who knew what. But either way BYD is ultimately responsible as they must make sure nothing like this happens in any of their operations. Would I buy a BYD? Not for now at least. They need to make sure they are building dreams responsibly.

Photo source: BYD NZ.

Buick China Sales : 2010-2024

Buick has a long history in China and has been a popular brand. When GM entered bankruptcy protection in 2009, decisions had to be made regarding restructuring. Buick was saved due to its strong position in China. We will see how that decision was vindicated by considering sales of the marque in China from 2010 to 2024. 

The figures include only cars made in China but I assume that is the vast majority if not all anyway. Import duty makes that a necessity. Sources can vary as to the numbers involved but in larger volumes of data it's not much of an issue. The chart figures need three zeros added so for example 900 equals 900,000.

2010-14: The chart to the right shows Buick sales went up from just over 500,000 to over 900,000. That was an increase from about 4% market share to just over 4.5%. 

In comparison, for the USA Buick increased from 155,000 to 225,000 with around 1.4% share. That's quite a difference with China well ahead. 

2015-19: Sales went from just over a million to above 1.3 million and then under 900,000. That had Buick reaching 5% market penetration, then falling to around 4.1%. In the US, sales were just over 200,000 per annum and 1.2% share. So the brand was still far more popular in China but the gap was closing. 

2020-24: From just over 900,000 units it plunged to barely over 300,000 by 2024. Its slice of the pie went from about 4.5% to 1.2%. Back home sales were about 170,000 and 1.1% market share. China was still the more important numerically but its share was now similar to the US. I wonder which was now the more profitable.

So what happened? Part of the reason was the Excelle model (photo at top). In 2014 it contributed over 500,000 units to the total (or 60%). By 2020, it was 300,000 (33%) but then the model was phased out and nothing fully took its place, the Envision and GL8 doing their best. 

In 2024 all models fell, some substantially. I assume that was due to giving up on chasing market share at the expense of profit. The issue was also that the market was changing and Buick wasn't keeping up. Electric cars are growing strongly in China and local brands are doing a good job of catering to that shift. 

Buick has introduced an electric brand (Electra, photo below) to cater to the swing toward new energy vehicles as they are referred to in China. How the Buick brand will go in future I'm unsure but then Electra may be the future for Buick in China. 

Austria Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Apr)

Registrations were up 16% in April and up 7% YTD. So things are ticking along nicely. 

VW has been the leading brand as far back as I can go and I assume the Golf has been the top selling model for most of that time. 

Škoda Octavia is currently top so a change may be happening as Golf sales have been falling quite rapidly in recent years.  Of course, there are eight months for that to change but for now a major shift. 

Škoda has been the second most popular band here since 2017 but is finding VW a tough nut to crack. On a negative note, Opel was second as recently as 2016 but is currently 14th. Ford was third in 2018 but now lies in 11th spot.  

Both SEAT (picture above) and Cupra are well supported marques here. Asian brands are not as strong but BYD (picture below) arrived during 2023 and already is making a splash with models like the Seal. 

The top selling models were:

Škoda Octavia -2,723

VW Golf - 2,481

SEAT Ibiza - 2,025

BMW X1 - 1,951

Dacia Duster  - 1,657

Dacia Sandero - 1,604

Škoda Fabia - 1,519

Škoda - Karoq - 1,515

Cupra Terramar - 1,498

VW Tiguan - 1,401

Toyota Yaris - 1,367

Audi Q8 - 1,229

VW Polo - 1,209

BYD Seal - 1,190

SEAT León - 1,019

Renault R5 - 1,017

For the 2024 article, simply click on the link below:

By brand. 

Data source: Statistik Austria.

Switzerland Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Apr)

Registrations were down 7% in April and down 8% YTD. So things are a bit subdued down at the local car dealer. 

VW overtook long time leader Opel in 1999 and has led ever since....until 2025. Of course, there are eight months for that to change but for now a major change. 

It's hard to believe that Opel is now 22nd but they are not the brand they were last century so in that sense not surprising. 

Apart from the strong Germanic presence, Japanese and Korean do quite well but China has had little impact so far. 

The top selling models were:

Mercedes-Benz GLC - 1,445

VW Tiguan - 1,322

Audi Q3 - 1,289

Škoda Kodiaq - 1,223

VW Golf - 1,139

Škoda Octavia - 1,126

Tesla Model Y - 1,113

Škoda - Karoq - 1,112

BMW X1 - 1,069

Škoda Fabia - 990

Toyota Yaris - 963

BMW X3 - 912

Dacia Duster  - 893

Dacia Sandero - 888

Audi A3 - 888

For 2024 articles, simply click on the links below:

By brand. 

Top 50 Models.

Data source: Auto Swiss.

Japan Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Apr)

Registrations were up 13% in April and 13% YTD as well. Import brands were +12% and +6% respectively. 

Import brands made up 5.6% of total registrations. In an open market such as this, it defies what happens anywhere else. 

Toyota and Daihatsu suffered in 2024 due to scandal but both are returning to normal volumes again. 

It was Japanese competition that benefitted and they are now the ones slipping back. Mazda is an exception with market share up although it is a small player here.

Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have lost share so far but VW and Porsche are currently well up. Land Rover and Tesla are both up too, the latter is a reasonably accurate estimate. 

The top selling models were:

Honda N-Box - 73,712

Toyota Yaris / Y Cross - 63,243

Suzuki Spacia - 60,399

Toyota Corolla - 57,386

Daihatsu Tanto - 45,316

Toyota Sienta - 41,082

Honda Freed - 35,355

Toyota Alphard - 35,511

Daihatsu Move - 32,686

Toyota Prius - 32,426

Nissan Note - 30,881

Suzuki Hustler - 31,721

Toyota Aqua - 30,816

For 2024 articles, simply click on the links below:

By brand. 

Top 50 Models.

Data source: JAMA, JAIDA.

The NSU Ro80

Sometimes a good idea ends up being anything but. The NSU Ro80 is a classic case of that as we will see. The focus here is car manufacturing, not bikes NSU also made. 

The company started making cars in 1905 but it didn't work out and they ended up assembling Fiat models instead, the brand name Neckar being used from 1957. That same year, the company started making its own cars again under the NSU brand name, the first car being the Prinz. 

The company started using the Wankel engine and in 1967, it made it into the Ro80. This was an advanced car in many ways and was given design awards as a result. Such acclaim didn't result in success. 

Production went from 1967 to 1977 but the the extreme dates were partial years so ten years was the length of time it was made. 37,400 were made or 3,700 per annum. From 1968 to 1970 the production numbers were around the 7,000 mark annually but fell away sharply after that. 

The main issues were reliability and fuel consumption. The engine was also expensive to make so along with warranty costs, it was hurting the company badly. Volkswagen took NSU over in 1969 and NSU was gradually wound down and absorbed into Audi. 

Audi seemed to take on the design of the Ro80 and allowed it to influence their products. Not a bad thing as the style of the Ro80 was a strong point, as was the driving experience. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough out outweigh the negatives.  

Luxembourg Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Apr)

Luxembourg is a multilingual principality with French being the most common language. Ethnically they are mainly Germanic as is their preference in cars. French brands do well here too. 

For April, registrations were down 1% and YTD up 1%. As the economy is strong, premium marques are well represented toward the top of the list to the right.  

Volkswagen overtook Renault in 2006 and remained at the top ever since. The top two have lost some market share so far this year but not enough the threaten their respective positions. 

Overall European brands dominate, with Korea having some success. Japanese makes aren't that strong and the Chinese push hasn't been that effective here so far. 

The top selling models in March were:

VW Golf - 264

VW Tiguan - 229

BMW iX2 - 214

Mercedes-Benz EQA - 204

Hyundai EV3 - 198

Opel Corsa - 177

Renault 5 - 166

Fiat 600 - 154

Hyundai Kona - 151

VW T-Cross - 139 

I wish there was greater access to the above.

For 2024 articles, simply click on the links below:

By brand. 

Data source: Statistiques Luxembourg.

Photo source: VW Luxembourg.

Slovenia Passenger Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Mar)

Formerly part of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Slovenia is known for its beautiful scenery, the architecture in the capital Ljubljana and for wine production. I've not been there but I'd like to visit.

For March passenger car sales were up 5% but the same as last year for the three months thus far. 

Volkswagen overtook Renault in 2014 and remained at the top ever since. In recent times, Škoda has been swapping second spot with Renault and in 2025 is winning that duel.

The top selling models were:

Škoda Octavia - 468

Renault Captur - 438

Renault Clio - 432

Škoda Kamiq - 416 (photo above)

VW Golf - 391

Škoda Kodiaq - 362

Peugeot 208 - 327

Citroën C3 - 310

Hyundai Tucson - 295

VW T-Roc - 273

For 2024 articles, simply click on the links below:

By brand. 

Top 50 Models.

Data source: ADS.

Peugeot Global Model Sales : 2023-24

Brands within Stellantis are data shy, perhaps it's due to the fact that they aren't doing that well. Peugeot is perhaps the strongest brand within the company and the only one seemingly sharing data. Coincidence? Possibly. 

Global sales were just under 1.1 million, down 2%. That is a good result, especially considering the Stellantis Group is badly in need of revitalising. They currently have an interim CEO while the search for a new one is underway.

Models: 14% don't make the cut in 2024, a shame. The other 86% are below, led by the compact 208 with 275,000 sales. The compact 2008 SUV comes in next with 214,000 units. The Partner van includes the Rifter passenger version and together they came in at 133,000. 

Data source: Peugeot.

Regions: Many of the Stellantis brands are regional rather and limited in their global reach. 75% of Peugeot sales are in Europe as an example. The Middle East/Africa took 11% of the volume, Latin America 8%, Asia/Pacific 3.8% and North America (read Mexico) 1.7%. 

Jaguar Sales : 2025 Q1

JLR in its infinite wisdom decided to end Jaguar sales until it is 'revitalised' as a luxury marque as opposed to a premium one. I personally felt they could have kept the F-Pace and i-Pace going through the transition period. 

It's a shame that this new direction will take Jaguar away from the existing loyal customer but I see the marque cannot straddle both. They will be hoping to woo new customers and being fully electric there seems less loyalty and more willingness to move to something new and exciting. Jaguar needs to deliver on that and from a styling point of view the teasers don't impress me. Hopefully reality is kinder.

Models: The F-Pace is still on top but currently has 35% share of Jaguar deliveries, The i-Pace has actually managed to increase by 7% and is now up to 29% of the total. The XE and XF are mainly sales in China but they too are petering out. Overall an expected 60% reduction. 

Data & photos JLR.

Regions: With the UK having an unusually high Q1 last year and now stopped supplying dealers in 2025, the 74% fall isn't surprising. North America did better than most but I'm not sure how long stock will last. I think they were trying to keep sales going longer than the UK.

The 'Other' did amazingly well, perhaps being for the most part further away from production points may have been responsible. They may have also stocked up a bit too, not wanting the extreme situation the UK went with. 

Land Rover Sales : 2025 Q1

In 2025 Land Rover pulled out of the passenger car market in France. 11,200 LRs passenger vehicles were sold in France in 2024 with some extra sales as stock was cleared. Still, that was quite a substantial market for LR. A few commercial vehicles are still being sold there though. 

It appears its to do with larger vehicles being taxed out of the market to improve emissions. Fortunately, French brands aren't duly affected as is so often coincidentally the case with this sort of move. 

Despite that loss, deliveries were up 5% for Q1. The Defender leads the way with 30% of LR sales, passing 30,000 units. The Range Rover Sport reached nearly 21,000 and the Range Rover 18,600. The Evoque was just shy of 14,000 deliveries. The three lesser models all slipped, the Velar down the most at -25%. 

Data & photos JLR.

Regions: North America remained the largest region, the majority of the deliveries to the US. With LR pausing shipments there for April due to the tariffs that will be applied, one would have to assume that Q2 will be somewhat lower. 

With the UK/US having a balanced trade and a close relationship, it's hard to fathom but I'm not into politics so must have missed something. There would have to be a good reason.

The UK is doing OK with 23,000 sales but I'll give it a B- as it could be better considering it's the local market. Europe is satisfactory, having lost the French market. China is in a poor way economically although a 24% drop was more than I expected. It was Land Rover's number one market as recently as 2023.

'Other' is very strong with over 18,000 units finding homes. That would make it the third best region if it was one, but it's not hence why it's at the bottom of the list.