Spain April 2019: Seat and Leon back on top in first market uptick in 8 months

The Seat Leon is by far the most popular vehicle in Spain in April.

Spanish new car sales cut short a painful streak of 7 consecutive months of declines in April with a sturdy +5.9% year-on-year uptick to 123.833 units, the largest result for the month since 2006 (129.468). The year-to-date drop slims down to -1.7% at 451.192 registrations. Unfortunately a lot of the April growth is artificial, with rental sales shooting up 30.4% to 38.925 and 31.4% share vs. 25.5% in April 2018 and company sales up 18.3% to 37.292 and 30.1% share vs. 27% a year ago. In contrast, private sales tumble down -14.3% to 47.616 and 38.5% share, a 9 percentage point-loss on the 47.5% it commended in April 2018. Year-to-date, this time it’s company sales (+7.1%) that perform best at 131.538 units and 31.2% share vs. 28.7% in 2018 while rental sales tilt into positive at +0.6% to 109.474 and 24.3% share vs. 23.7% and private sales lag behind at -8.1% to 200.900 and 44.5% share vs. 47.6% a year ago.

In the brands ranking, Seat (+11.5%) reclaims the lead for the first time since January at 9.8% share, knocking Peugeot (+18.7%) for the month but not year-to-date. Renault (+21.3%) completes a podium entirely managing double-digit gains. Hyundai (+35%), Citroen (+31%), Ford (+27.6%) and Mercedes (+17%) also post stunning scores in the remainder of the Top 10 whereas Toyota (-7.7%), Volkswagen (-7%) and Opel (-6.2%) struggle. Further down, Abarth (+63.3%), Mitsubishi (+59.8%), Ssangyong (+32.3%), Lexus (+30%), Volvo (+25.6%), Jeep (+25.2%), Honda (+20.4%) and Suzuki (+19.6%) all excel.

Model-wise, the Seat Leon (+78.9%) surges to easily reclaim the pole position with 4% share vs. just 2.5% for its most immediate pursuant the Renault Clio (+22.3%) just as the Seat Ibiza (-40.3%) crumbles down year-on-year but gains 12 spots on March to #3. The Dacia Sandero (-15.3%) and Peugeot 208 (+4.3%) round up the Top 5 while the Seat Arona (+41.6%) is back up 9 ranks on last month to #7 and both the Peugeot 3008 (+12.9%) and Renault Captur (+11.6%) both post solid scores. The Dacia Duster (+185.7%), Hyundai Kona (+126.7%), Ford Focus (+88.7%) and Kuga (+59.9%) score the largest gains in the Top 25. The Peugeot Rifter (#24), Toyota Corolla (#30), Citroen C5 Aircross (#61) and VW T-Cross (#66) top recent launches (<12 months).

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

One year ago: Spain April 2018: Seat Ibiza up to #1 YTD, market at highest in 10 years

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