08 July 2025

Land Rover Sales : 2025 H1

















Deliveries were down 1% for H1, a good result with the way things are in the car industry. The marque's mixture of quality combined with ruggedness gives it a certain 'je ne sais quoi', not that French buyers can appreciate that now.  

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 achieved as stock was snapped up. Still, that was quite a substantial market for LR. A few commercial vehicles are still being sold there though. 

It appears it's 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. 

The Defender leads the way with 30% of LR sales, with over 57,000 units. The Range Rover Sport exceeded 40,000 deliveries and the Range Rover passed 36,000 units. The Evoque was just shy of 24,000 deliveries. The three lesser models all slipped, the Discovery Sport down the most at -23%. 

Data & photos JLR.





















Regions:
North America remained the largest region, the majority of the deliveries to the US. With LR temporarily pausing shipments there for April due to the tariffs being applied, sales remained buoyant, perhaps customers reacting to possible price increases. If stock has been replenished quickly, then the remainder of the year should be unaffected. 

The UK is doing OK with 39,000 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 25% drop was more than I expected. It was Land Rover's number one market as recently as 2023.

'Other' is very strong with over 34,000 units finding homes. The MENA region (Middle East/North Africa) has now been separated from 'Other' but as it is just from Q2 that it has been applied, I have kept them together. 5,600 units from that region were delivered in Q2. 

Jaguar Sales : 2025 H1










JLR in its infinite wisdom (I sarcastically jest) 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. I won't even go into axing the XJ after having spent up large developing it. 

It's a shame that this new direction will take Jaguar away from the existing loyal customer but do I see the marque cannot straddle both premium and luxury. 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. 

It is still risky to go all electric and having all your eggs in one basket is high risk. Jaguar needs to deliver on its new direction. From a styling point of view the teasers don't impress me. Hopefully, reality is kinder.

With sales having ended in the UK so dramatically, there were zero deliveries in Q2. It seems excessively premature. Despite that and sales winding down everywhere, the sales drop is just 62%. Deliveries were a surprisingly high 5,300 in Q2. 

It seems some countries have stocked up to keep sales going as long as possible, a logical move lost on the UK. China manufactures XE and XF and local Q2 deliveries were surprisingly up but on an admittedly very poor Q1. China was responsible for 54% of Jaguar deliveries in Q2. 

Models: The F-Pace is still on top and achieved a 34% share of Jaguar deliveries in H1. The i-Pace has ceased production but decreased a mere 41%, the best of the bunch. The XE and XF are sales mainly in China. 

Data & photos JLR.

Regions: With the UK having an unusually high Q1 last year and having now stopped supplying dealers in 2025, the 83% fall isn't surprising. North America did better than most but I'm not sure how long stock will last. They were obviously 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. 

Rivian Deliveries / Production Figures : 2025 (H1)

Rivian delivered 8,640 vehicles in Q1 2025 and 10,661 in Q2, which were down 36% and 23% respectively when compared to the corresponding two quarters a year earlier. 

For H1 2025 there were 19,301 deliveries in total. In 2024 the figure was 27,378.

First quarters can be lower as was the case in 2023 when just 16% of sales were in Q1. Q2 picked up as expected and very much needed.

So the 2025 figures are disappointing whatever way we try to look at it. Rivian has a target of 46,000 for the year, or 11,500 per quarter, so the last two will have to be much better to achieve that. The company is confident that will be achieved or at least be close to it.

At first glance, the fact the company made 14,611 for Q1 seems too high. The explanation was that a new model (R2 picture above) is coming in 2026 so later this year production will be compromised as the factory is readied for that. So inventory is being built up to meet sales demand while production is affected. That is how it is panning out. 

Data & picture source: Rivian. 



07 July 2025

Nio Global Sales : 2025 (H1)










The company started selling its first road car in 2018, having made a handful of track sports cars beforehand. It was soon struggling financially but with the help of funding it survived that. It's known for battery swap stations which overcomes wait times for recharging. 


Nio is a premium electric car marque in the mould of Tesla. During 2024 it added a mainstream electric brand ONVO which stands for On Voyage. Now the Firefly sub brand has arrived to challenge the Smart brand and even MINI although I'm not sure it is quite at that level.











In 2023, the Nio company sold 160,000 cars and 222,000 a year later. In the first half of 2025, 114000 Nio, ONVO and Firefly cars were delivered, up 40% for Q1 and up 26% in Q2.  

In the chart below we can see Nio remains the best selling brand with 74,000 units, ONVO 32,000 and Firefly 8,000. ONVO has experienced headwinds and hasn't been as well received as hoped. The company is still confident things will improve as it addresses problems the brand has faced.  

Data & photo source: Nio.

The top photo is of the Nio ES8 SUV, the middle snap is of the Firefly and the picture below is the ONVO L60 coupe SUV which is the only current model for the latter. The full sized ONVO L90 SUV is however coming. 

Lucid Deliveries/Production : 2025 (H1)










Below are Lucid delivery and production figures for the past two and a half years. For figures going back to the beginning, an article on that can be seen by clicking here.

Deliveries were up 58% for the first quarter and 38% for the second one, reaching 6,418 in half one in 2025. It was also the best two quarters yet, albeit by a slender margin. 

Production was also up, 63% and 83%. The Q1 figure was 2,212 with over 600 kits sent to Saudi Arabia for assembly there. As I don't know how much in excess of 600 it was, I added exactly that number. In Q2 production rose to a record 3,863 units but no mention of Saudi Arabia for this quarter.

The press releases lack much detail so I have reported it at face value as a good sales result and let Lucid concern itself with production and inventory levels.  

Data source: Lucid.






04 July 2025

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. 

03 July 2025

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.

27 June 2025

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.

29 May 2025

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.

28 May 2025

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. 

15 May 2025

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:


Data source: Statistik Austria.

13 May 2025

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:


Data source: Auto Swiss.