By William Boston
BERLIN--New car sales in the European Union got off to a strong
start in January, posting the fastest growth in the month since
2010 on the back of rebounding sales in Spain, Italy, the United
Kingdom and France.
New car registrations, a reflection of new car sales, rose 6.7%
from a year earlier to 999,157 vehicles, according to the
Association of European Automobile Manufacturers. That makes last
month the best performing January since 2010, when new car sales
grew 12.6%.
Opel, the European unit of General Motors Co., was the fastest
growing volume brand last month, with new car sales increasing
15.9% to 62,684 vehicles, helping Opel and its U.K.-based sister
brand Vauxhall boost market share to 6.3% in January from 5.8% a
year ago.
The strong growth in France was driven by robust sales at
Renault, the largest French auto maker. Renault brand sales grew
11.3% to 65,035 cars in January.
Sales of the Volkswagen brand, the biggest volume manufacturer
in the EU with 12.9% market share, grew 7.7% in January, followed
by Ford Motor Co.'s European unit, which saw sales rise 5.1% to
68,774 vehicles. The Fiat brand posted a 4.7% sales increase in
January, followed by a 4% increase in sales of the Peugeot
brand.
In the premium car segment, sales of Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz
cars rose 12.8%, outpacing BMW AG, which grew 5.8% and Audi, which
saw sales growth slow to 1.6% in the region.
Audi was the largest premium brand in the EU in January, with
sales of 53,480 cars, followed by Mercedes sales of 49,883 cars and
BMW sales of 49,387.
Write to William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com.