Sweden’s best-selling car not a Volvo

By BBC

Sweden’s best-selling car in 2016 was not a Volvo – the first year that has happened in more than half a century.

Instead the Volkswagen Golf topped sales, according to the country’s carmakers’ association, although Volvo still had the largest share of the country’s car market overall.

The Golf made up 5.9% of new cars bought in the country, while Volvo’s V70, S90 and V90 took 5.7% together.

Volvo was last knocked off top spot in 1962 by a Volkswagen Beetle.

Despite Volvo’s car business now being owned by a Chinese firm, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, it is still viewed as an iconic Swedish brand.

And it still sells the most cars in Sweden, with more than one in five cars (21.5%) on the country’s roads, compared with Volkswagen’s 15.7%.

However, Volvo’s V70, the most popular car in Sweden for the past two decades, has ceased production in favour of the newer V90 model.

Sweden is Volvo’s second-biggest market behind China.

The Swedish carmakers’ association said 2016 saw record car sales with 372,000 new registrations, up by 8% on the 2015 figure, helped by a strong economy, while truck sales were up by more than 15%.