The European automotive industry showed resilience over the first 11 months of 2016, posting growth despite the macro climate of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Registrations in the 29 European markets in November showed a 6.8% increase for the year-to-date, constituting the highest YTD increase since 2007.

Total registrations in the 29 European markets analysed by JATO Dynamics totalled 1,184,140 – an overall growth of 5% when compared to November 2015. Year-to-date registrations for 2016 so far totalled 13,937,339 – an increase of 6.8% when compared to last year, and the largest YTD increase since 2007. The SAAR came in at 15,097,119.

Europe’s largest five markets all posted an increase in registrations during November, with the Spanish market seeing the highest increase in sales of 13% compared to the same period in 2015. France ranked second, achieving a healthy growth of 8.2%. Meanwhile, Germany, Italy and the UK all posted modest increases of 1.5%, 5% and 2.9% respectively. November was a positive month for car registrations across Europe – with 26 out of 29 markets recording an increase in registrations compared to 2015. The only markets experiencing a decline were Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands where registrations declined by 20.4%, 0.4% and 20.7% respectively.

Volkswagen Group maintained its position as Europe’s largest car group in November 2016. Despite experiencing a drop in market share of 0.28 percentage points, it still accounted for 24.6% of the market in November. Renault-Nissan increased its market share by 0.72 percentage points, keeping its second- place position and constituting 14.1% of the market. Daimler posted the highest market share increase of 0.83 percentage points, making it the 5th largest car maker in Europe and meaning it accounted for 6.74% of the market in November. Conversely, the biggest decline in market share was experienced by PSA, which remained Europe’s third largest car group despite a decrease in market share of 1.19 percentage points due to declines posted by all of its brands.

In the segment ranking, SUVs continued to perform well in November, 316,278 SUVs were registered, which was a 16.1% increase on the same month last year. The SUV segment continued to increase its hold on the market – posting the highest market share gain of any segment and meaning it accounted for 26.7% of the market in November. This was detrimental to traditional segments such the MPV, A, and E segments which all posted declines in registrations compared to November 2015.

The Volkswagen Golf maintained its long held position of being Europe’s leading car, despite registrations for the model declining by 7.5% when compared to November 2015. The Renault Clio was the second best-selling model across Europe’s 29 markets, its November registrations increased by 20.3% when compared to the same month last year. The Renault Captur was Europe’s best-selling SUV in November, it registered 188 more models than its rival – the Volkswagen Tiguan, and pushed the Nissan Qashqai in to third place.