Belgium August 2019: Dacia (+74.2%) soars to #5, Mercedes A-Class #1 in market down -11.9%
Dacia is inside the Belgian Top 5 brands for the 2nd time in history. Picture life1.be
Now updated with the Top 10 models.
Like most of the European Union this month, the Belgian new car market pays the price of artificial pre-WLTP stock clearances a year ago and dives -11.9% in August to 47.936 units, yet is up a splendid 35% on August 2017, a more realistic comparison base. The year-to-date tally is now down -5.8% to 403.535 registrations but, again, up 2.3% on the same period in 2017. The brands podium is unchanged on July and composed of Volkswagen (+6.9%) up to a sturdy 10.4% share above Mercedes (-11%) at 8.6% vs. 7.1% YTD and Renault (-40.3%) freefalling to 7.3% of the Belgian market vs. 8.8% YTD now that pre-WLTP sales aren’t here. The standout hero of the month is Dacia surging 74.2% year-on-year and four spots on July to break into the Belgium Top 5 for the second time in history at #5 (also hit in December 2017) and breaking its all-time market share record at 6.2% (previous best 6% in December 2017). Apart from Audi (+1.1%), the remainder of the Top 11 is entirely in negative, with Nissan (-39.8%), Citroen (-38.9%), Hyundai (-24.8%) and BMW (-24.5%) hit the hardest. Further down, notice Tesla (+395.2%), Honda (+117.8%), Alpine (+71.4%), Smart (+62.4%), Suzuki (+48%), DS (+43.8%), Maserati (+41.7%), Seat (+33.9%), Lexus (+21.1%) and Toyota (+16.5%) all posting spectacular gains.
Model-wise, the Mercedes A-Class (+36.4%) spectacularly takes the lead above the VW Golf (-7%) and the Mercedes C-Class (+64.2%), while the Renault Captur (-44.5%) and VW Polo (+6.1%) round up the Top 5 and the Renault Clio (-58.2%) loses the YTD pole position to the VW Golf.
Previous month: Belgium July 2019: Mercedes (+59.9%) shoots up to #2 brand in strong market (+5.5%)
One year ago: Belgium August 2018: Renault (+106%), Nissan (+177%) artificially boost market up 53% with pre-WLTP stock clearances
Full August 2019 Top 55 All-brands and Top 10 models below.