New car sales in Europe grew 7.8% year-on-year in February to 956,419 units according to vehicle information provider JATO.

Of the 29 countries covered by JATO, 18 recorded growth in February compared to the same month in 2014.

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The biggest increase was witnessed in Portugal with new car sales expanding by 37.6% year-on-year, while Austria saw its new car registrations fall the most (25.2%)

All of the five biggest markets in Europe – France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain – recorded growth in new car registrations in this period.

Spain experienced the highest increase (up 22.2%) compared to the same month last year, while Italy and Great Britain also recorded a double digit growth of 13.1% and 12% respectively.

According to year-to-date growth figures across the 29 countries, the number of new car sales is 7.1% higher than 2014.

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Biggest brands

Volkswagen remained the market-leading brand, with its sales rising 12.3% year-on-year in February to 118,781. Year-to-date sales were up by 10.3% compared to 2014.

Renault overtook Ford for second position for both February and the year-to-date, with sales increases coming from the new Twingo and the Captur.

All of the top 10 brands saw their volumes increase for the month, with BMW posting the strongest growth at 14.8% driven by the new 2-Series Active Tourer.

Outside the top 10 growth was also driven primarily by new models, with Nissan volumes up 26.8% for the month, SEAT up 20.9%, MINI up 33.4%, Mitsubishi up 45.1%, smart up 44.3% and Jeep up 186.2%.

The Volkswagen Golf remained the best selling model, with a 5.8% increase in February sales; followed by the Polo in second place with 7.2% more units sold following last year’s facelift. The Renault Clio (up 1.9%) took third place, ahead of the Ford Fiesta (down 1.5%) and Peugeot 208 (down 2.7%).

Volkswagen’s new Passat increased sales by 63.8% year-on-year compared to its predecessor last February, to record a year-to-date increase of 44.0%, making it the most improved performer across both measures among the top 10 models.