Netherlands Full Year 2012: Renault Mégane up 164% to #1

Renault Mégane

* See the Top 150 best-selling models and Top 40 All-brands by clicking on the title! *

The Dutch new car market is down 6% in 2012 to 502,544 registrations and the Netherlands have become a case study of how government incentives towards low emission models can completely reshape a country’s models ranking. The way this worked is low emission vehicles remained at the same price while ‘polluters’ had a significant CO2 fee added to their normal price. As the models benefitting from this preferential pricing kept changing through the year, the ranking was highly impacted by these changes, with some vehicles achieving world best figures one month and a few units the next.

Case in point: the Renault Mégane, outside the Top 10 for 2 years up until May when it ranked #1, staying there for 6 of the following 7 months and peaking at an out-of-this-world 10% share in November. It finishes the year in pole position with 21,434 sales and 4.3%, up a huge 164% on 2011, making the Netherlands the only country in the world to crown the Mégane.

VW Up!

The VW Polo is down 24% year-on-year and one spot to #2 with 18,785 sales and 3.7% while the Peugeot 107 stays #3 at 15,765 units and 3.1%, down 25%. The Kolin sisters add up to 34,027 sales and 6.8%, down 28%. Exceptional first year for the VW Up!, landing directly at #4 with 12,747 units and 2.5%, even topping the ranking in October. Other great performers in the Dutch Top 10 this year include the Ford Focus up 18% to #6, the Kia Picanto up 23% to #7 and Toyota Yaris up 120% to #9.

Lexus CT200h

Further down, notice the Peugeot 508 up 16% to #13, the Peugeot 208 arriving at #18, the Kia Rio up 226% to #19, BMW 3 Series up 63% to #20, Lexus CT up 43% to #43 and the Audi A5 up 67% to #48. Apart from the VW Up! and Peugeot 208, there are 8 all-new models in the Top 100 this year: the Toyota Prius+ at #46, Volvo V40 at #56, Opel Ampera at #58, Mazda CX-5 at #62, Seat Mii at #81, Skoda Citigo at #86, Citroen DS5 at #98 and Audi Q3 at #99.

Previous post: Netherlands December 2012: Opel Ampera and Citroen DS5 at world best

Previous year: Netherlands Full Year 2011: VW Polo and Renault Twingo on top

Full Year 2012 Top 150 models and Top 40 All-brands Ranking Tables below.