Israel September 2018: Seat surges 92% in market down 35.6%

Seat sales are up 92% year-on-year in Israel. The new Arona helped. Picture carsforum.co.il

* See the Top 45 All-brands and Top 265 All-models by clicking on the title *

Thanks to our partnership with cartube.co.il, we can share with you today September data for Israel. As for every quarter, complete data including models is available this month. In September the Israeli new car market drops 35.6% year-on-year to just 12.883 units, pulling the year-to-date volume down 5.5% to 224.980. Toyota (-12%) leapfrogs Kia (-33%) and Hyundai (-38%) to take the lead of the brands ranking for the first time since last December with 14.4% share but the Korean domination is safe YTD with Hyundai at 15.3%, Kia at 13.1% and Toyota at 10.4%. Seat (+92%) is the only Top 20 carmaker to post a year-on-year gain, and not a small one, almost doubling its sales year-on-year to land in 6th place vs. #10 YTD and #13 over the Full Year 2017. Only Porsche (+413%), Jaguar (+220%), Volvo (+48%), Infiniti (+8%) and Isuzu (+1%) also manage a positive result among brands selling at least 10 units this month.

Model-wise, the Kia Sportage (-6%) is in the lead over Q3 but did not top any monthly ranking over the period. Instead, the Hyundai Ioniq was #1 in July, holding onto its YTD lead with a 46% gain at end-September, the Kia Picanto was #1 in August and ends Q3 at #2 and the Toyota C-HR topped a depressed September, leaping up to #7 in Q3 and #10 YTD. If over the First Half of 2018 the Top 5 was 100% Korean, this domination now extends to the Top 6 both over Q3 and the first 9 months of the year with the Hyundai i10, Kia Niro and Hyundai Tucson completing the Top 6. The Toyota Corolla (-36%), Nissan Micra (+8%) and Mitsubishi Outlander (-31%) round up the Q3 Top 10. The Skoda Karoq (#20) dominates recent launches (<12 months) above the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (#31), Seat Arona (#33), Mitsubishi ASX (#38) and Kia Stonic (#41).

Previous month: Israel August 2018: Kia leads, Mitsubishi and Seat soar

One year ago: Israel September 2017: Kia Picanto snaps YTD lead, Hyundai Ioniq shines

Full September 2018 Top 45 All-brands, Q3 2018 and Top 265 All-models below.