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Spain Full Year 2016: Renault, Seat Leon win in market pushed by rentals

seat-leon-spain-2016The Seat Leon is the best-seller at home for the third year in a row. 

* See the Top 60 All-brands and Top 420 All-models by clicking on the title *

Consult 44 years of Spanish Historical Data here

New car sales in Spain continue their recovery in 2016, posting a fourth consecutive year of gains at +10.8% and 1.153.645 registrations. This is the highest annual tally in eight years – since 2008 (1.161.499) – and up 65% on the low of 2012 (700.562) but still down 30% on the record high of 2005 (1.647.837). There is an alarm bell ringing this year though: the Spanish market has been pulled up mainly by rental sales up 17% to 206.178 and reaching 17.9% share vs. 17% in 2015, as well as company sales up 16.5% to 321.435 leading to a 27.9% share vs. 26.5% last year. Reversely, private sales are up just 6% to 626.032 and now represent 54.3% of the market vs. 56.6% in 2015. This is still above large European markets such as Germany and France but this trend indicates the Spanish recovery is slowly morphing into an artificially-boosted one.

Renault Megane Spain 2016. Picture courtesy largus.fThe new Mégane help Renault snap up the annual brands pole position in Spain. 

Thanks to a last minute surge in December, Renault bypasses Volkswagen and Seat to finish the year in the brands’ pole position with 7.8% market share, only 1.138 sales above Opel (7.7%). Note the two market leaders advance at the same fast pace in 2016: +17%, which is only beaten in the Top 10 by Kia (+19%). Volkswagen (+1%) retrogrades to third place despite ending the year just 1.460 units below Renault, it distances Peugeot (+9%) and Seat (+0.2%). Ford (-7%) is the only manufacturer in the Top 30 with Dacia (-1%) to actually lose volume vs. 2015. Toyota (+13%), Audi (+17%), Hyundai (+15%), Fiat (+29%), Mercedes (+21%), BMW (+23%), Mazda (+19%), Volvo (+26%) and Mini (+18%) all run faster than the market this year, while among smaller brands Suzuki (+63%), Abarth (+78%), Jaguar (+110%), Infiniti (+149%) and Tesla (+418%) stand out.

Seat Ateca Spain 2016. Picture courtesy autobild.deThe Seat Ateca is the most popular new launch of 2016.

Despite falling down in the brands ranking, local carmaker Seat retains its stranglehold on the models charts: the Leon delivers a third consecutive year on top with 2.9% share and its stablemate the Ibiza remains in 2nd place at 2.8%. The Opel Corsa soars 30% and 7 spots on 2015 to land on the third step of the podium with 2.3% share, ahead of the VW Polo (+1%) and Renault Clio (+10%). The VW Golf (-1%), Nissan Qashqai (+6%) and Dacia Sandero (-1%) all drop in the ranking, while the Peugeot 308 (+15%) and 208 (+7%) return to the Top 10. Other great performers include the Renault Captur (+23%), the Hyundai Tucson up to #14 for its first full year, the Opel Mokka up 36%, Hyundai i20 up 41% and Kia Rio up 30%. The Seat Ateca leads new launches at #72 (but ranked in the Top 20 twice), ahead of the Fiat Tipo (#76), Renault Talisman (#98) and the new generation Peugeot 3008 (#110).

Previous post: Spain December 2016: Renault shoots up 55% to 10.4% share

Previous year: Spain Full Year 2015: Second year of reign for the Seat Leon

Two years ago: Spain Full Year 2014: First ever year of reign for the Seat Leon

Full Year 2016 Top 60 All-brands and Top 420 All-models vs. Full Year 2015 figures below.

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