Israel August 2015: Kia now #1 year-to-date, Picanto & Sportage on top

The Kia Picanto is the best-selling car in Israel this month.

* See the Top 40 All-brands and Top 236 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Israeli new car market is up 16% in August on a low basis a year ago to 21.240 registrations, lifting the year-to-date total to 188.633 units, up 9% on 2014. We witness a momentous change of guard in the brands ranking: thanks to sales up 17% to 3.023 and 14.2% share, Kia takes the year-to-date lead at 24.371 units and 12.9% (+31%), overtaking sister company Hyundai (down to #3 this month) at 24.039 and 12.7% (+3%), Toyota is up 25% in 2nd place, Mitsubishi up 27% at #5, Nissan up 130% to #7, Volkswagen up 27% to #8 and Peugeot up a whopping 244% to #9 vs. #15 year-to-date. Notice also Citroen (+156%), Subaru (+110%), Audi (+63%) and Fiat (+60%).

Mitsubishi Attrage

Like in July, the two best-selling models in Israel are Kias this month, albeit in a different order: the Picanto is the most popular at 1.199 units and 5.6% above the Sportage at 971 and 4.6% with the Toyota Corolla rounding up the podium at 946 sales and 4.5%. Year-to-date, the Corolla (9.188) is now threatened on its throne by the Picanto (9.048) while the Sportage is up a spectacular 221% year-on-year to 8.008 deliveries. The Mitsubishi Attrage surges 11 spots on July to #4 overall with 764 sales, mostly to rental companies.

Peugeot 301

Notice also the Nissan Micra up to #7 vs. #14 year-to-date, the Peugeot 301 up 23 ranks to #14 and 405 sales (here too mostly rentals) vs. 48 YTD (+111%), the VW Golf up to #18 vs. #40 and the Subaru XV up 29 spots to #24. Among recent launches, the Citroen C4 Cactus is up 19 ranks to #48, the Fiat 500X is up 60 spots to break into the Top 50 for the first time at #49 and the Dacia Lodgy is up 92 to #58.

Highest private sales ratios by segment – Israel January to August 2015:

Source: Yediot/ynet.co.il – Udi Atzion

Finally, thanks to our correspondent in Israel at www.cartube.co.il we can now understand the specificities of the Israeli new car market and the “sudden death” of a few nameplates such as the Ford Focus. Fleet sales are estimated to account for roughly 50% of the entire market, this ratio climbing to 60-70% in the C segment. Above we can see most crossovers have a healthy private sales ratio, led by the Citroen C4 Cactus (92%), Toyota RAV4 (90%) and Nissan Juke (90%), with the VW Polo (96%) and Suzuki Swift (95%) leading the a-b segments. On the contrary in the c segment private sales are clearly weaker with only the VW Golf (92%), Seat Leon (70%) and Honda Civic (67%) above the symbolic 50% mark. The Hyundai i25 (15%), Opel Astra (10%), Peugeot 301 (7%) and Mitsubishi Attrage (5%) are almost fleet-only.

Previous month: Israel July 2015: Sportage and Picanto on top, lift Kia to #1 brand

One year ago: Israel August 2014: Hyundai i10 in Top 5, Mitsubishi Attrage in Top 10

Full August 2015 Top 40 All-brands and Top 236 All-models below.