Ford has been a popular brand across Europe for quite a long time now, as is the case in most of the markets in which it operates. In April, The Blue Oval continued to rank among the most popular – or best-selling – brands in that region, in fact, coming in eighth after recording 40,458 sales, which was a four percent increase, year-over-year. Now that we have new vehicle sales figures for May across the entirety of Europe, it reveals that not much changed for the Ford brand in the ensuing month, either.
According to new data from JATO Dynamics, Ford remained in eighth place in terms of having the most registered new vehicles in May at 41,110 units – a solid nine percent increase compared to April 2024. Volkswagen Group continued to lead the way with a whopping 303,268 new vehicle registrations last month – a three percent increase, followed by Stellantis (168,867), Renault Group (109,712), Hyundai-Kia (88,401), BMW Group (78,231), Toyota (76,537), Mercedes-Benz (58,442), Ford, Geely Group (32,992), and SAIC (29,387). In terms of EVs, Ford once again ranked among the top 25 best-sellers in that space as well, moving up to the 11th spot in May – while the Explorer landed among the best-selling electric vehicles in the region, too.
As for the overall new car market in Europe, it recorded a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase in May, closing out the month with 1,107,517 sales. Of that mix, pure EVs accounted for 194,300 units, a 28 percent increase versus May 2024, which increased market share 3.5 percentage points to 17.5 percent. Much of that growth was driven by Chinese brands, however, in spite of tariffs imposed on such vehicles. In fact, Chinese automakers recorded 65,808 sales in May 2025 – 5.9 percent of the overall market – which is more than double the 2.9 percent share those companies held a year ago.
“Despite the EU’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, its car brands continue to post strong growth across Europe,” said Felipe Munoz, Global Analyst at JATO Dynamics. “Their momentum is partly due to their decision to push alternative powertrains, such as plug-in hybrids and full hybrids, to the region.”
Comments
That strikes me as a historically weak position for a volume automaker like Ford, especially since a signification portion of those sales are now commercial vans.
Great job Ford. You used to be in the top 5 in Europe year after year. And now you are number 8 with number 1 selling over 7(!) times more cars. Well done.