Spain March 2019: Peugeot (+21.5%), Renault (+9.4%), Citroen (+41.8%) make podium 100% French in 7th straight market decline

The Citroen C3 posts the largest gain in the Top 25 in March.

It’s a painful 7th straight month of year-on-year decline for Spanish new car sales at -1.3% 126.984 units in March, still the 2nd largest volume for the month in the past 12 years below just last year. The year-to-date volume is now down -4.3% to 327.341 sales, this time the 2nd largest tally since 2008. Company sales prevent the market from falling a lote faster this month at +6.3% to 38.860 and 30.6% share vs. 28.4% a year ago, whereas private sales drop -3% to 54.477 and 42.9% share vs. 43.6% in March 2018 and rental sales fall -6.5% to 33.647 and 26.5% share vs. 28%. The year-to-date picture is similar with company sales up 3.5% to 103.518 and 31.6% vs. 29.2%, private sales down 6% to 153.274 and 46.8% vs. 47.7% and rental sales freefalling down 10.7% to 70.549 and 21.6% vs. 23.1%.

In the brands ranking, Peugeot (+21.5%) brilliantly remains in control, distancing Renault (+9.4%) and Citroen (+41.8%) for a podium 100% French for the first time in at least 6 years. Below a timid Seat (+1%), Ford (-24.6%), Nissan (-23.9%), Volkswagen (-13.6%), Opel (-11.8%) and Kia (-9.6%) all falter with only Toyota (+15.6%) standing out in the remainder of the Top 10. Below, Tesla (+567.7%), Mitsubishi (+62.2%), Jeep (+55.9%), Alfa Romeo (+52.8%), Porsche (+44.6%), Volvo (+23.7%), Mini (+23.4%), BMW (+14.6%), Dacia (+12%), Suzuki (+11.1%) and Lexus (+10.2%) impress. Finally Seat’s premium brand Cupra makes its first appearance in the Spanish charts at #37 both in March and YTD, catching up on sales misattributed to Seat in the first two months of the year.

The Nissan Qashqai (+7.5%) is the best-selling vehicle in Spain for the 2nd month running, earning the #1 YTD spot off the Seat Leon (+4.8%) down to #3 this month. The Citroen C3 (+65%) is up 11 spots on February to land at a stunning 2nd place, posting the largest gain in the Top 25 and now up to #4 so far this year. Only the Renault Captur (+18.2%) and Clio (+6.4%) are up in the remainder of the Top 10, with the VW Polo (-29.4%) and Fiat 500 (-24.1%) hit the hardest. Just outside, the Peugeot 3008 (+48.2%), Ford Kuga (+31.6%), Seat Arona (+28%) and Renault Megane (+20.9%) impress. The Citroen Berlingo (#13), Peugeot Rifter (#24), Toyota Corolla (#52) and Citroen C5 Aircross (#68) lead new launches while the Tesla Model 3 breaks into the Spanish Top 100 for the first time at #89 and the Lexus UX is up a whopping 154 spots on last month to #110. We welcome the Cupra Ateca at #197 and the VW T-Cross at #202.

Previous month: Spain February 2019: Peugeot (+18.8%) takes control, Citroen (+16.2%) shines in 6th consecutive market decline

One year ago: Spain March 2018: VW Polo #1, Fiat 500 #3, sales at 11-year high

Full March 2019 Top 50 All-brands and Top 300 All-models below.