Netherlands January 2020: Volkswagen places 6 models in Top 12 in market down -7.1%

The VW Polo is #1 in the Netherlands for the 5th time in the past 10 months.

New car sales in the Netherlands drop -7.1% year-on-year to 44.303 registrations even though January 2019 was already down -19.6%. Volkswagen (-7.9%) falls slightly faster than the market but easily holds onto the brands pole position with more than double the sales of the #2 BMW (-1.2%) up a spectacular 13 spots on December. Peugeot (-14.1%) is up 11 to #3, Kia (+12.1%) is up 9 to #4 and although Toyota (+51.1%) remains at #5 and Renault (+29.2%) is down 3 ranks on last month to #6 both manufacturers score the largest year-on-year gains in the Top 10. Below, Porsche (+176%), Tesla (+161.5%), Lexus (+74.6%), DS (+46.6%), Dacia (+31.2%), Jaguar (+14.3%), Mini (+13.9%), Audi (+12.1%), Seat (+12.1%) and Mercedes (+10.8%) make themselves noticed with double-digit gains while newcomer MG is down 12 spots on December to #28.

Because of rushed sales in December in the wake of new EU CO2 regulations and tougher taxes on expensive EVs, the January models ranking looks nothing like last mont: among the Top 10 best-sellers, only the VW Golf (#9) was in the December Top 10… The VW Polo (-3.6%) rallies back 24 spots to snap the Dutch pole position for the 5th time in the past 10 months, distancing the Ford Focus (-1.9%) and Renault Clio (+93.4%). The VW Up (-9.1%) and Kia Niro (+53.7%) round out the Top 5 and Volkswagen places no less than 6 nameplates in the Top 12, adding the T-Roc (-5.8%), Golf (-62.8%), new T-Cross and Tiguan (+81.8%). The Toyota Corolla (#16) is the 2nd best-selling new launch ahead of the Mazda CX-30 (#40), Skoda Scala (#84), Kamiq (#95), Kia Xceed (#99) and MG ZS (#101). As expected, after an artificially boosted December leading to an all-time record 12.053 registrations, the Tesla Model 3 is down -98.7% (!) in January to a paltry 152 sales.

Previous post: Netherlands Full Year 2019: Tesla Model 3 confident #1, hits largest annual model volume since 2000

One year ago: Netherlands January 2019: Ford Focus on podium in freefalling market (-19.6%)

Full January 2020 Top 45 All-brands and Top 265 All-models below.