(November 13, 2012) ROLLE, Switzerland — Europe is a tough area in which to sell cars this year, but Nissan has bucked the headwinds. Nissan has announced an increase in year-to-date sales and market share versus October 2011 of 5.4%.

This performance was echoed regionally in some of Nissan's major markets. In Russia and the UK where Nissan has a strong industrial footprint, year-to-date market share was up 7.5% and 4.5% respectively. France also posted strong year-on-year market share gains with an increase of 15.1% versus this time last year.

These results were achieved against a turbulent financial and economic backdrop in Europe and at a time when the automotive industry at large is feeling the effects of weakening consumer demand and reduced consumer spending power.

Nissan's flagship models like the Qashqai and Juke continued to perform well with sales of Nissan's X-Trail SUV jumping nearly 25% in October 2012 compared to September 2012. This contributed towards the 51,147 units sold by Nissan overall in Europe in October 2012.

Nissan vice president for sales operations in Europe, Guillaume Cartier, said: "Nissan continues to weather the financial storm in Europe and our year-to-date performance regionally, and within our major markets, leaves us optimistic about the remainder of the year, despite the economic headwinds.

"We're aware of the challenges that lie ahead for the automotive industry, but we're 100% committed to investing in new technologies and our product pipeline to deliver exciting products that serve the needs of customers across Europe."