Belgium Full Year 2016: VW Golf back to #1, Hyundai Tucson on podium

The Hyundai Tucson is up to an incredible third place overall in Belgium in 2016.

* See the Top 10 best-selling brands and models by clicking on the title *

Check out 28 years worth of Belgian Historical Data here

The Belgian new car market is up by a very dynamic 8.8% year-on-year in 2016 to reach 539.521 registrations. Four out of the Top 6 best-selling carmakers outpace the market, leading to a slight concentration of tastes towards the tried-and-tested brands out there. Renault remains master in command with sales up 12% to 10.4% share, but as per last year a (very big) caveat to this score is the fact that Renault de-registers up to 30% of its new car sales within 30 days to then re-export them to other European Union countries and sell them as used as we detailed in Strategy: Renault champion of fake registrations. In 2nd place, Volkswagen is up 11% to 9.8% and BMW up 8% to 7.4%. Opel leaps up 14% to overtake Peugeot and rank 4th overall with 7.1% share, while Mercedes passes Audi to rank 6th and #2 luxury with 6.2% share. Citroen is the only brand in the Top 10 to lose ground on 2015 at -19%. Dacia (+10%) gains one spot to #13, with Mini (+27%), Mazda (+28%), Land Rover (+18%), Honda (+41%), Jaguar (+113%), DS (+135%) and Lexus (+28%) the other carmakers in the Top 10 to post double-digit gains. Further down, notice Infiniti up 198%, Rolls-Royce up 111% and Morgan up 107%.

The Renault Captur is up 58% to make it three Renaults in the Top 5. 

In the models ranking, the VW Golf (+22%) reclaims the top spot it held in 2014 off the Renault Scénic, surprise winner last year. This means the Golf has now topped Belgian sales charts for 6 of the past 7 years and 21 of the past 30 years. The Renault Clio (-3%) remains in second place just above the revelation of the year: the Hyundai Tucson. The compact SUV has hit the bullseye in Belgium: it is the first Korean nameplate to ever rank on the annual podium. Up 5-fold on 2015, it posts an astounding five-digit sales figure at 10.965 and outsells last year’s winner the Renault Scénic (-21%). At #3, it is by far the highest ranking for the Tucson in a major European market (it ranked #1 in Ireland). Almost four years after its launch, the Renault Captur finally takes off in Belgium with sales up 58% and leaps 13 spots on 2015 to #5. The Opel Astra is up 10 to #7 and the VW Tiguan up 150% and 41 ranks to #9.

Previous post: Belgium June 2016: Renault Scenic and VW Tiguan dominate

Previous year: Belgium Full Year 2015: Renault Scénic takes control for the first time

Two years ago: Belgium Full Year 2014: VW Golf, BMW 3 Series and Renault Clio lead

Full Year 2016 Top 65 All-brands and Top 10 models vs. Full Year 2015 figures below.