Germany First Half 2016: Volkswagen down 1% in market up 7%

Volkswagen is counting on the Tiguan to return to growth at home over the remainder of 2016. 

* See the Top 50 brands, Top 370 All-model and Top 30 private sales by clicking on the title *

It’s a very robust First Half of the year for new car sales in Germany, up 7% or 116.000 units to 1.733.839. Market leader Volkswagen struggles with sales down 1% to 346.188 and loses almost two percentage points of market share, going from 21.7% to 20%. Even though the emissions scandal it has been embroiled in since last September hasn’t truly damage the opinion Germans have of the brand, the manufacturer has had to slow its release schedule to focus on fixing the affected engines and getting regulators’ approval, a process that is still far from being complete. This, more than any kind of boycott by consumers, explains the brand’s decline in market share at home so far this year.

Audi (+13%) places the A3 at #4 and the A4 at #7. 

Audi for its part is stronger than ever at +13% to 159.501 sales and 9.2%, distancing Mercedes at 9% and BMW at 7.8%, both up 10%. Opel (+13%), Ford (+11%) and Renault (+15%) also beat the market in the Top 10, while Mazda (+17%), Kia (+11%), Mini (+10%) and Mitsubishi (+13%) do so in the Top 20. Among smaller brands, Lexus (+25%), Alfa Romeo (+29%), Land Rover (+30%), Honda (+50%), Ssangyong (+62%), Infiniti (+80%) and Jaguar (+100%) all post spectacular gains compared top the same period in 2015.

BMW is up 10% and places the 2 Series at #11. 

The Volkswagen Group places four models in the Top 4 best-sellers over H1 2016: the VW Golf is unreachable at 128.932 sales despite dropping 5% and one full percentage point of market share to 7.4%, and is followed by the VW Passat (-9%) and VW Polo (+7%) while the Audi A3 gains 8% to overtake the Mercedes C-Class (-0.2%) and rank 4th overall. The VW Touran (+29%), Opel Astra (+26%) and Audi A4 (+21%) post the biggest gains in the Top 10, all helped by new models. Below, the BMW 2 Series still rides on the success of the Active and Gran Tourer MPV variants (+56%), the VW Tiguan drops 6 spots to #12 as the new generation slides into the starting blocks, and the Skoda Fabia (+16%) and Seat Leon (+15%) make it three “foreigners” in the Top 15 along with the Skoda Octavia (#8).

The Hyundai Tucson is by far the most successful new nameplate of 2016.

Outstanding and immediate success of the Hyundai Tucson landing directly at #36 with 13.454 sales and totally dominating new nameplate launches: the next bests are the Ford Mustang (#121), Fiat Tipo (#178) and Renault Talisman (#181). Notice also the Skoda Superb up 75% to #37, the Mercedes GLC up 61% on the GLK a year ago to #38, the Kia Sportage up 54% to #52, Audi Q7 up 124% to #82, Ford S-Max up 386% to #68, Mazda CX-3 up 721% to #72 and Renault Kadjar up 813% to #79, the latter two being only just over one year old.

The Skoda Fabia is the third best-seller in Germany with private buyers.

Exclusive to BSCB, we can also share with you the best-selling models with private buyers over H1 2016. This is a very different ranking as the general one, given such strong sellers as the VW Passat (#3 overall) are purchased at 90% by fleet, and therefore don’t make it into the Top 50. The VW Golf remains on top despite a low 28.3% Private Sales ratio, ahead of the VW Polo (57.6%) and Skoda Fabia (53.4%). The Mini (48.2%) shoots up to #6, the BMW 1 Series is up to #7, the Fiat Ducato at #9, the Mercedes B-Class at #11 and the Mercedes A-Class at #12. The BMW X1 is up to #15, the Hyundai Tucson up to #17, Dacia Sandero up to #18 and Mitsubishi Space Star up to #19. Reversely the Opel Astra drops to #13, the Audi A3 to #14 and the Opel Corsa to #29.

Previous post: Germany June 2016: Opel Astra snaps first podium in over 4 years

One year ago: Germany 1st Half 2015: VW Golf, Passat and Polo further Volkswagen domination

Full H1 2016 Top 50 brands and Top 370 All-models vs. Full H1 2015 figures below.

Full H1 2016 Top 30 best-selling models with private buyers below.