Europe sales by model, July and 7 months; VW Golf regains top spot

The Volkswagen Golf regained its place as Europe's best-selling car in July after the compact hatchback lost the crown in the previous two months to the Renault Clio.

The rollout of the eighth-generation Golf has been slowed by software glitches. VW was forced to halt Golf deliveries of the model after discovering a problem in the car's software that enables emergency calls.

VW sold 31,148 units of the Golf in July, ahead of the Clio's volume of 24,901.

The Skoda Octavia took the No. 3 spot, followed by the VW Tiguan at No. 4 and the Peugeot 208 in fifth place.

The Golf was the best-selling car in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg while the Clio was No. 1 in its home market of France.

The Octavia was the top-seller in its Czech home market and in Austria.

In the UK, Ford took the two top spots with the Fiesta followed by the Focus. In Italy, the Fiat Panda and Lancia Ypsilon were No. 1 and No. 2.

Sales of battery-powered cars did not threaten the dominance gasoline and diesel models in any European market except in Norway where the Audi e-tron was the best-selling car overall.

The Tesla Model 3 appeared in Norway's top ten at No. 6, as did the Renault Zoe at No. 8, the Mercedes-Benz EQC at No. 9. and the BMW i3 at No. 10.

The Golf was Europe's top-selling car in the January to July period, followed by the Clio.