Lotus, Audi, BMW make strong gains in October while Mercedes, Ford slide

Lotus, BMW, Audi and China's BYD had strong gains in October, helping them rise in the ranking of Europe's top-selling brands compared with the same month year.

Lotus's more than 1,000 percent sale surge to 358 propelled it to No. 49 in October from No. 67 during the same month last year. The Eletre, the brand's first SUV, is leading the British automaker's revival.

Audi's 19 percent sales jump to 58,991 made it Europe's No. 3-selling brand for the month, compared with a fourth-place finish last October, according to preliminary figures from market researcher Dataforce.

VW brand was Europe's No. 1-selling brand followed by Toyota at No. 2 last month.

Audi increased sales of the Q4 E-tron 83 percent to 4,389 and boosted sales of the A4 56 percent to 5,903 last month.

BMW rose to No. 4 from No. 6 by boosting overall sales 18 percent to 56,020.

The premium automaker doubled sales of the range-topping 7 Series to 388 and increase sales of the i4 electric car 39 percent to 4,296, according to data representing 92 percent of sales in the European Union, the EFTA countries and the U.K.

MG finished the month at No. 18, compared with being No. 22 in October 2022, helped by a 61 percent sales gain to 18,256.

The month was not as positive for Mercedes-Benz and Ford.

Although Mercedes increased sales 7.6 percent to 53,881, it slid to No. 6 compared with a No. 3 finish during the same month last year.

Mercedes suffered declines of 29 percent and 57 percent, respectively, for the S-Class and EQS last month, Dataforce figures show.

Ford's 9 percent decline to 41,874 in an overall market that was up 14 percent caused the U.S. automaker to slide to No. 10 last month compared with No. 7 in October 2022.

A big reason for the decline was a 46 percent decrease in sales of the Fiesta small car, which has gone out of production.

Many winners

Last month, 40 brands increased their European sales by more than the market, while 52 brands ended the 10th month of the year with volume gains.

At the same time, 24 brands lost volume for the month, according to Dataforce.

Sixteen brands, including Jaguar, Ineos as well as Ora, Wey, Nio, Aiways, BYD and Xpeng of China, recorded triple-digit percentage gains or higher.

Other brands that had strong sales increases last month included Jeep (+61 percent), Lexus (+60 percent) and Porsche (+54 percent).