New car sales up in Hungary

The number of new car registrations jumped in Hungary by 21% year on year in April 2015, the financial website portfolio.hu quotes JATO Dynamics. The top-selling brand was Ford, as it once more took the lead in sales to businesses. Suzuki, however, was the top pick among private individuals, surpassing Opel and Dacia that were the 'kings' of this category earlier.

A total of 6,752 new passenger cars and 1,332 small utility vehicles (of 3.5 ton or less) were registered in Hungary in April 2015, which corresponds to a 21% year-on-year increase in the first and a 7% rise in the latter category.

Ford was the top seller last month with 1,083 vehicles (passenger cars and SUVs combined) sold, 87% of which were purchased by business. This ensured the brand a 13.2% market share last month.

On the market of passenger cars only, Opel grabbed first place with 738 new cars registered and a 10.9% market share. The runners-up were Ford, with 720 new cars sold and Skoda with 712 cars sold.

The most popular model was Skoda Octavia, of which 393 were sold. The runners-up were Opel Astra (306), Ford Focus (238), Suzuki Vitara (212), Suzuki Swift (202), Volkswagen Golf (193) and Suzuki SX4 S-Cross (183).

Portfolio.hu notes that growth continues to be ensured by the demand from businesses, adding that in Hungary, many people purchase cars for themselves via their company. 77% of new car registrations last month were by companies. Taking at look at the most popular models, the website points out, “we can still be sure that re-export continues to play a key role in how the statistics turn out.”