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

Kia Picanto Netherlands February 2016The 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.

VW Polo Netherlands January 2016. Picture courtesy autoexpress.co.ukNumber 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.

Renault Kadjar Netherlands February 2016. Picture courtesy largus.frThe 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.

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