Netherlands January-February 2016: Kia Picanto #1 in market rid of income tax bias

The Kia Picanto is the best-selling car in the Netherlands so far in 2016. 

* See the Top 45 best-selling brands and Top 265 models by clicking on the title *

Shaky start of the year for the new car market in the Netherlands, down 14% in January to 40.776 registrations and another -15% in February to 28.408, bringing the year-to-date total to 68.980 units, down 15% on the same period in 2015 at a time where almost every single European market is in frank positive territory. The explanation is simple: up until December 2015 the Dutch new car sales landscape was entirely shaped by preferential tax cuts granted to low-emission vehicles. The announced tightening of the aforementioned tax cuts on January 1, 2016 brought forward a significant amount of sales in the last two months of 2015: December was an all-tome record at 69.159 sales. In 2016 and for the first time since 2012, the Dutch market should come back to a composition closer to the real tastes of customers.

Number One in January: the VW Polo. 

The brands ranking is akin to shifting sands so far this year: the January podium (1. Volkswagen 2. Renault 3. Kia) gets completely reshuffled in February to crown Peugeot (-6%) ahead of Kia (-3%) and Opel (+31%) with Renault down 46% to #4 and Volkswagen down 37% to #6. Hyundai is up 79%, Toyota down 52%… So far in 2016 after two months Volkswagen is in the lead despite sales down 21% to 9.240 for a 13.4% market share, followed by Kia (+3%) and Peugeot (-17%). Hyundai (+85%), Mazda (+82%), Honda (+107%) and Jaguar (+131%) make themselves noticed.

The Renault Kadjar is inside the Dutch Top 20 in February.

In the models ranking, in January Volkswagen manages an impressive 1-2-3, placing the Polo in the lead with 2.201 sales above the Up (2.028) and the Golf (1.949) with the Kia Picanto (1.084) and Renault Captur (1.057) rounding up the Top 5 and the Opel Karl at an outstanding 7th place. In February the cards are completely redistributed: this time the Kia Picanto is sovereign with 1.738 sales, earning it the year-to-date top spot (2.822), followed by the Peugeot 108 (939) and Hyundai i10 (881), the Dutch market taking an air of Denmark with a podium 100% microcars. The Ford Fiesta and Toyota Aygo round up the Top 5 while the Renault Kadjar breaks into the Top 20.

Previous post: Netherlands Full Year 2015: Peugeot 308 sovereign (17.4% share in Dec)

One year ago (Jan): Netherlands January 2015: VW Up, Polo and Golf on top

One year ago (Feb): Netherlands February 2015: Kia Picanto and Suzuki Alto shoot to top

Full January and February 2016 Top 45 brands and Top 265 models below.