Honda has fourth consecutive record year in Europe

Honda's sales growth in Europe has outpaced all other auto manufacturers in 2007, according to industry sales figures just published.

The company also announced on January 17 all-time record car sales for the European region of 398,960, an increase of 21.5 percent on 2006. This is the fourth consecutive calendar year Honda has posted record sales in Europe, and national sales records have been broken in 32 of the 37 countries in the region.

Sales growth has been strong across the whole region, with notable increases in a number of Western European markets, as well as in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

Sales in Romania, Ukraine and Russia have all more than doubled. In Sweden sales are up over 60 percent, whilst Norway has seen an increase of 55 percent. These are followed by France, Greece and Poland with increases above 30 percent, and Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark which have all increased their year-on-year sales in excess of 20 percent.

The popularity of the Civic, Honda's main model in Europe, has been key to this success, with its sales across the region rising 41.7 percent to 160,082 over the year. The CR-V launched in early 2007, also saw sales rise by 77.3 percent to a record 90,562. In particular, CR-V diesel sales have increased by 72.7 percent and this is now Honda's biggest selling diesel model.

"We are very pleased to see that such a large number of European customers have chosen Honda products," said Shigeru Takagi, president of Honda Motor Europe Ltd.

"2008 will be another exciting year for us as we will introduce the new Accord this summer and the new Jazz in the latter half of the year. With these new products, we are confident that we will continue to exceed customers' expectations and maintain Honda's momentum."