Nissan Achieves Record European Market Share For April

ROLLE - SWITZERLAND – May 5, 2011: Today Nissan announced a 35% year-on-year leap in European sales for the first four months of 2011, and record market share for April.

Buoyed by the launch of new Micra and the continuing success of the pioneering Qashqai crossover, Nissan sold a total of 235,543 vehicles in January-April, an increase of more than 61,000 units versus 2010.

This performance has seen Nissan improve its share of the overall European market over the same period to 3.8% (0.9% up on last year).

April accounted for 53,840 sales, more than 20% up on 2010, securing a monthly market share of 3.5%.

In addition to robust sales of Micra and Qashqai, the Sunderland-built Juke crossover is also performing strongly with 36,500 sales so far in 2011 and nearly 60,000 since its launch last September.

The X-TRAIL SUV and Barcelona-produced Navara Pickup are also making a significant contribution with calendar year sales up by 56% and 71% respectively in the January-April period.

Bernard Loire, Vice President Sales Operations Europe, commented: "Nissan's excellent start to 2011 is continuing, with April sales nearly 9,500 units above 2010, setting an all-time record market share for the month.

"All of our major European markets have shown an impressive year-on-year improvement in the January - April period, including Russia, UK and Spain where Nissan is now the top-selling Japanese brand."