Volvo loses home advantage as the VW Golf Takes Top Spot
Published Date: 12th Jan 2017
For over 50 years a Volvo has been the best-selling car in Sweden, but in 2016 the VW Golf has taken the top spot by a slim margin.
Sweden has been a strong patron of Volvo when it comes to buying new cars, and this has been the case for the last 50 years. 2016 was another good year for Volvo but they gave away the top selling car spot to VW in the shape of the Golf. The VW golf is one of the best-selling new cars on the Planet and heads the VW brand as their flagship hatchback.
Volvo is an iconic Swedish brand that has a very strong foothold in Sweden and will continue to reap success in the Scandinavian country despite the VW golf snatching the top spot.
| Make and model | 2016 sales | 2015 sales | Percentage of all new car sales |
| Volkswagen Golf | 22,082 | 22,779 | 5.93% |
| Volvo V70/S90/V90 | 21,321 | 28,613 | 5.73% |
| Volvo S60/V60 | 16,755 | 14,698 | 4.5% |
| Volvo XC60 | 16,266 | 14,834 | 4.37% |
| Volkswagen Passat | 15,716 | 14,392 | 4.22% |
| Volvo V40 | 12,691 | 10,333 | 3.41% |
| Toyota Auris | 7,423 | 6,868 | 1.99% |
| Volkswagen Polo | 7,091 | 4,585 | 1.9% |
| Kia Cee’d | 6,778 | 6,726 | 1.82% |
| Skoda Octavia | 5,889 | 5,519 | 1.58% |
As you can see in the Table above – Volvo occupy 4 of the top 6 spots in the best-selling cars in Sweden Top 10. VW are in very good stead with 3 cars in the top 10 including the VW Golf, VW Polo and the VW Passat. The Cars that Volvo have sitting in the top 10 list are – The Volvo S90/V90, Volvo S60/V60, Volvo XC60 SUV and Volvo V40 Hatchback. Volvo have occupied the no.1 spot since 1963, the last time Volvo was not the best-selling car in Sweden was back in 1962, when a Volkswagen Beetle took number one spot.
Volvo managed to sell over 71,000 cars in Sweden in 2016, which is 13,000 more than VW managed to sell over the same period (58,000). Sweden’s new car market rose by 7.8 percent in 2016 thanks to low interest rates, coupled with a strong economy, with 372,296 new cars registered.
A Little bit of Volvo History
The Volvo Group has its origin in 1927, when the first Volvo car rolled off the production line at the factory in Gothenburg. Only 280 cars were built that year. The first truck, the "Series 1", debuted in January 1928, as an immediate success and attracted attention outside the country. In 1930, Volvo sold 639 cars, and the export of trucks to Europe started soon after; the cars did not become well-known outside Sweden until after World War II.
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