THE European arm of Nissan has announced a 15 per cent year-on-year rise in January sales to 55,098 units.
In a flat market, Nissan increased its monthly share by 0.6 per cent to 4.2 per cent overall in January, with locally-produced models accounting for nearly 80 per cent of sales.
The Sunderland-built Qashqai crossover continues to dominate the segment it helped create with sales of nearly 20,000 last month. While Juke, its smaller Sunderland stable-mate, achieved a 33 per cent jump in year-on-year sales to rival Qashqai in some markets including the UK and Russia.
In the UK, Nissan car sales leapt 21.5 per cent year-on-year in January to 6,285 with the Qashqai becoming the eighth best selling car in Britain.
Nissan also produces the vast majority of its light commercial vehicles sold in Europe at plants in Barcelona and Avila, Spain. This segment made a significant contribution to the monthly total with a 16 per cent increase in overall sales compared to last year.
Nissan Vice President for Sales Operations in Europe, Guillaume Cartier, said: ‘Nissan is reaping the benefit of putting our customers’ desires and expectations ahead of traditional thinking.
‘In the crossover segment we identified an unmet need and produced the Qashqai and Juke – one of our most successful model families ever. And we are also innovating across our range introducing new engines, new technologies and new ideas.
Extremely encouraging
‘This is the main reason we enjoyed a record 2011 in Europe, and it is extremely encouraging to see this level of sales success and momentum carrying over into 2012.’
Russia is Nissan’s largest single European market, and also where the company achieved its biggest monthly increase – from a 5.7 per cent share in January 2011 to 7.4 per cent in 2012.
Other top-performing markets in January included France and the UK, both of which increased sales by 22 per cent year-on-year. While market share in Italy climbed to four per cent, and a 4.6 per cent share was achieved in the Nordic region (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Baltics).