Spain June 2019: Seat (+8.9%), Peugeot (+9.7%) resist, Arona up to record #2 in 9th market drop in past 10 months (-5.9%)

The Seat Arona is up to a record 2nd place at home.

The Spanish new car market endures a 9th year-on-year decline in the past 10 months in June at -5.9% to 134.341 registrations, leading to a First Half tally down -3% to 715.314. Revealing a strongly artificial market, only the rental channel is healthy in June with sales up 6.5% to 41.549 units and a whopping 30.9% share vs. 27.3% a year ago in June 2018. In contrast, company sales skid down -3.9% to 41.421 but improve their share from 29% to 29.6% and it’s private sales, arguably the true indicator of a market’s health, that freefall at -15.5% to 52.966 units and 39.4% share vs. 43.6% a year ago. Year-to-date, company sales gain 5.1% to 218.542 and 30.6%, rental sales edge down -0.4% to 185.491 and 25.9% share and private sales drop -9.4% to 343.470 and 43.5% vs. 46.6% over H1 2018.

Seat (+8.9%) and Peugeot (+9.7%) both hold onto their May ranking atop the brands charts but also spectacularly swim upstream, with Peugeot remaining #1 YTD. Volkswagen (-18.4%) posts the largest year-on-year drop in the Top 10 but climbs back onto the podium, with Fiat (-17.5%), Toyota (-14.2%) and Kia (-12.2%) also in great difficulty. Dacia (+8.4%), Opel (+8.1%) and Citroen (+7.3%) are very strong in the remainder of the Top 10. Further down, Tesla (+718.6%), Suzuki (+27.7%), DS (+12.6%) and Hyundai (+9.6%) are among the very rare clear gainers, just as Maserati (-51.9%), Infiniti (-49.1%), Subaru (-40.4%), Abarth (-34.2%), Alfa Romeo (-27.8%), Audi (-26.8%), Nissan (-24.9%), Honda (-23.4%), Jaguar (-20.2%), Skoda (-17.4%), Lexus (-13.5%), Mini (-13.4%) and Mitsubishi (-13%) all fall painfully.

Model-wise, the Dacia Sandero (+14.4%) clings its 2nd monthly win of the year after January and 11th in total, stepping up to #2 YTD below just the Seat Leon (-20%) in dire straits and down to #3 in June. The hero of the month is the Seat Arona (+112.6%) leaping up 7 spots on May to hit an all-time record 2nd ace overall, scoring at once its first Top 5 and podium finishes at home and smashing its previous ranking record of #6 established last October. Perhaps more significantly, this month the Arona outsells the Ibiza, its hatch counterpart, by more than 1.000 units, its 4th victory over the model on which it is based after last October (+316), November (+83) and February (+18), but by far the most convincing. This is a symbolic evolution in a European market switching from city cars to city crossovers en masse. Also impressive in the Top 10 are the Peugeot 208 (+32.5%), Renault Megane (+20.1%) and Opel Corsa (+7.8%). The Toyota Corolla (#19) tops recent launches above the Citroen C5 Aircross (#57) and VW T-Cross (#65) and we welcome the Mercedes EQC Class (#233) and Toyota Supra (#300) in the Spanish charts this month.

Previous month: Spain May 2019: Peugeot, Citroen and Toyota stay afloat in 8th market decline in past 9 months

One year ago: Spain June 2018: VW surges 35% in highest month in over 10 years

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