Spain September 2019: Peugeot and Renault Clio top market artificially up (+20.7%)

The Renault Clio scores its first Spanish win in 3 years.

It’s time to kick start September updates and in Europe we will see a blanket of seemingly impressive year-on-year gains due to the depleted September 2018 volumes post-WLTP implementation. Spain inaugurates the trend with a 20.7% year-on-year surge to 85.021 units, with a more realistic comparison set being +1.6% on September 2017. The year-to-date tally remains however in negative at -4.8% to 998.472, still the 2nd best volume at this stage of the year since 2007. Rental sales fare best this month at +121.6% to 5.650 units and 6.6% vs. 3.6% a year ago, followed by company sales up 32.3% to 35.710 and 42% vs. 38.3% while private sales lag behind but are still up at +6.8% to 43.661 and 51.4% vs. 58%. Year-to-date, only company sales (+0.8%) are up to 324.665 and 32.5% share vs. 30.7%, with rentals (-1%) down a smidge to 213.714 and 21.4% vs. 20.6% and private sales (-9.9%) once again faring the worst to 460.093 and just 46.1% share vs. 48.7% over the same period in 2019.

In the brands ranking, Peugeot (+12.5%) confirms it is the new favourite at 8.6% share, holding onto the YTD top spot with 8.7% of the market and distancing Seat (+11%) both this month and YTD. Renault (+91.7%) and Volkswagen (+61.8%) recover from dismal year-ago months while Citroen (+22.4%) rounds up the Top 5 like last month and YTD. Below, Porsche (+423.8%), Alfa Romeo (+100%), Audi (+92.1%), Mini (+88.5%), Fiat (+58.3%), Nissan (+47.2%) and Mazda (+27.9%) had all abused the pre-WLTP game and therefore surge on particularly weak year-ago results, while for Tesla (+605.4%) the growth is a lot healthier and linked to the arrival of the Model 3.

Model-wise, the Renault Clio (+98.8%) recovers from depleted year-ago sales as well as benefits from the 5th generation starting to appear in dealerships to take the overall lead for the first time in 3 years (since September 2016) but remains #4 year-to-date. The Nissan Qashqai (+151.7%) holds onto the 2nd place it snapped last month, distancing the Seat Leon (+16.4%), VW Golf (+165%) and Seat Arona (+24.2%) outselling the Ibiza (-13.1%) for the 6th time in the past 12 months and ever. The Dacia Sandero (-1.3%) falls 6 spots on August to #7 but remains #2 YTD, while the Renault Captur (+152.9%), Megane (+127.7%) and Mini (+113.4%) all get a post-WLTP lift. The Toyota Corolla (#12) dominates new launches above the VW T-Cross (#41), Citroen C5 Aircross (#43) and Seat Tarraco (#84) as we welcome the Kia Xceed (#96), Skoda Kamiq (#202) and Rolls-Royce Cullinan (#281) in the Spanish charts.

Previous month: Spain August 2019: Sandero 3peats at #1, lifts Dacia to record #6 in market logically down (-29%)

One year ago: Spain September 2018: Peugeot 3008 signs first major win in the world

Full September 2019 Top 50 All-brands and Top 285 All-models below.