Last month Nissan sold 57,518 units in Europe. This now brings calendar year to date sales to more than 578,500 – around 125,000 units (21%) up over the same period in 2010.

Nissan’s European market share for October was 3.8% representing a 0.5% year-on-year increase.

Nissan’s sales performance, although up across the range, continues to be driven by increasing demand for the Micra and brisk sales of the Qashqai and Juke crossovers.

Juke has already passed the 100,000 sales landmark in Europe in less than a year, and Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, UK continues to operate ‘around the clock’ production to keep pace with demand for Juke’s bigger brother, Qashqai.

Last month Qashqai became even more desirable following the introduction of an all-new 1.6 litre diesel engine which, when combined with Nissan’s engine start-stop system, emits just 119g of CO2 / km with no compromise in performance.

Top performing markets in October included Russia where Nissan increased overall year-on-year sales by almost 50% to 14,452 units; France, which was 33% up and the UK at +18% versus 2010. 

Guillaume Cartier, Nissan vice president for Sales Operations in Europe, commented: ‘In September Nissan broke a 16-year old record and achieved its highest ever market share in Europe. This momentum has carried into October which is more than 8,000 units up on 2010.

‘Even more encouraging is the fact this performance is not limited to individual models or markets. Our crossovers are still as popular as ever, but we are witnessing an ‘across the range’ improvement with important contributions throughout most of our major markets.’