AT THE halfway point of the 2012 calendar year, Nissan is bucking the trend of depressed demand in the European car market by posting a five per cent rise in sales over 2011.
Overall customer demand in Europe for the January-June period is around 4.5 per cent or 428,000 units down on 2011, caused in part by continuing economic uncertainty in the south of the region.
But Nissan recently announced sales of more than 366,000 units for the first six months of the year, over 18,000 units up compared to the same period in 2011.
This achievement is also reflected in Nissan’s overall share of the European market, which has climbed to an average of above 3.9 per cent for the first six months.
A strong June has supported this performance. Nissan sold 65,626 units last month representing a 14 per cent improvement on June 2011 and delivering a monthly share of 3.9 per cent (0.6 per cent up year-on-year).
The popularity of Nissan’s crossover family remains as strong as ever. In June alone, Nissan sold more than 40,000 crossovers – mainly of the Sunderland-produced Qashqai and Juke, representing a 23 per cent year-on-year increase.
Another successful year
Nissan’s success in the passenger car segment was also mirrored in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) sector. Despite an overall dip in demand of over three per cent for LCVs, Nissan increased its year-on-year sales and improved its segment share to 3.1 per cent through sales of the Spanish-built NV200, Navara Pickup.
Top performing markets for Nissan in June included Russia with over 14,000 sales and the UK with more than 11,000 sales.
Nissan Vice President for Sales Operations in Europe, Guillaume Cartier, said: ‘The second half of the year will continue to pose challenges for all manufacturers, but I’m confident that the strength of our model line-up, which is one of the broadest within Europe, will result in another successful year for Nissan.’