Netherlands August 2018: Renault, VW boosted by pre-WLTP clearances

Renault had a large stock of non WLTP-compliant Twingos to register in August (+271%). 

* See the Top 43 All-brands and Top 275 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Netherlands is another market whose August sales are completely biased by stock-clearing of non-compliant models to the new WLTP emissions standards put in place on September 1. As a reminder, these models virtually won’t be able to be sold after that date so had to be registered in August at the latest. The result is a completely artificial 39.8% year-on-year surge of registrations this month at 41.355, lifting the year-to-date tally up 14.7% to 330.471. The usual suspects we have seen play the system the most in other European markets are also hard at work here: Nissan (+127%), Volkswagen (+119%), Audi (+108%) and Renault (+102%) in the Top 10, Dacia (+171%) and Porsche (+132%) further down with Tesla (+133%) posting a “true” gain as it remains unaffected as its models don’t emit anything. The Top 6 best-selling nameplates all post extravagant and artificial triple-digit year-on-year gains, led by the Renault Clio (+162%), VW Up (+186%), Polo (+229%), Renault Captur (+108%), Nissan Qashqai (+155%) and Renault Twingo (+271%). Notice also the Suzuki Swift (+340%), Volvo V60 (+227%), Opel Crossland X (+182%), Audi A4 (+170%), VW Tiguan (+125%), Renault Kadjar (+119%), Audi A1 (+111%) and Peugeot 2008 (+103%) in the remainder of the Top 50.

Previous month: Netherlands July 2018: VW Polo leads, Renault Clio and Captur up

One year ago: Netherlands August 2017: Renault Clio reclaims YTD lead off VW Polo

Full August 2018 Top 43 All-brands and Top 275 All-models below.