The figures mark an accentuation of an upward trend in the EU that began almost two years ago: The June increase is the largest since December 2009.


Ireland came second in terms of its year-on-year sales increase, at 25%, followed by Spain, up 22%. Only Luxembourg, Austria and Estonia saw sales down on the year.


In the first half of a whole, Portugal again led the field, with sales up almost 33% on the same period a year earlier, against a European Union overall increase of 8%.


In the first six months of this year, more than 7 million vehicles were sold in the EU as a whole, of which more than 100,000 were in Portugal.