Germany February 2020: Electrified vehicles (+92.8%), Seat (+23.4%) bright lights in market down -10.8%

Seat sales surge 23.4% year-on-year and the Arona is up 46.7%.

11/03 update: Now with Top 50 Private sales models.

The German new car market skids down -10.8% year-on-year in February to 239.943 units, the largest and only double-digit drop among the main European markets in February. It brings the year-to-date tally down -9% to 486.243. However the market would have fallen even harder were it not for business sales down a slightly more moderate -7.9% to 160.282 and 66.8% share vs. 64.7% a year ago just as registrations to private buyers implode -16.1% to 79.661 and 33.2% share vs. 35.3% in February 2019. Meanwhile electrified sales surge 92.8% to 38.154 and 15.9% share, including 21.646 hybrids (+67.2%), 8.354 PHEVs (+279%) and 8.154 EVs (+76%). Petrol sales drop 22% to 52.1% share and diesel drops -13% to 156.109 and 31.6% share.

Polestar has landed in Germany.

Volkswagen (-11.1%) almost matches its home market to 18.5% share but pulls the VW Group down -9.8% to 38.1% share vs. 38.9% so far in 2020. VW tops an extremely stable German brands ranking as the Top 10 is identical to January. Mercedes (-3.3%) and Audi (-20.3%) complete the podium with very different fortunes, Seat (+23.4%) is the hero of the lot as the only year-on-year gainer in the Top 10, let alone double-digit gainer, while BMW (-1.2%), Renault (-2.2%) and Hyundai (-7.7%) resist well but Opel (-20.6%) and Ford (-18.5%) crumble and Skoda (-11.3%) roughly matches the market. Below, Ferrari (+102%), Lexus (+71.2%), Bentley (+48.7%), Volvo (+25.4%), Lotus (+25%), Lamborghini (+23.9%), Porsche (+19.1%), Nissan (+14.9%), Fiat (+13.1%), DS (+12.1%) and Kia (+7.7%) are the most dynamic. Finally Polestar makes its grand entrance in the German charts at #47 with 10 sales of the 1.

VW Passat deliveries are up 87.2% in February.

Over in the models ranking, the VW Golf (-22.8%) is hit hard but remains #1, distancing the Ford Focus (-1%) up two spots on January to #2 and a slew of three VWs: the Passat (+87.2%) rejuvenated by its facelift, the Tiguan (-21.4%) and Polo (-24.1%) both struggling in similar measure as the Golf. The BMW 3 Series (+83.8%) is also surfing on its facelift and edges up one spot on last month to #6, the Opel Corsa (-9.9%) is down year-on-year but up 8 ranks on January to #7 and the Audi A4 (+2.8%) manages a shy gain as opposed to the Mercedes C-Class (-22%) and Skoda Octavia (-14%) closing the Top 10 in dreadful fashion. The Renault Clio (+106.5%), Mercedes CLA (+89%), Audi Q3 (+72.5%), Kia Ceed (+56.7%), Seat Arona (+46.7%), Ibiza (+43.2%), Mercedes A-Class (+38.2%) and Seat Leon (+36.2%) are among the biggest gainers in the Top 50. Now that the VW T-Cross (#32) is one-year old, the Skoda Kamiq (#38) is the most popular recent launch above the Toyota Corolla (#55), Skoda Scala (#60), Mazda CX-30 (#64) and Ford Puma (#85).

Private success: the Skoda Kamiq (#9), VW T-Cross (#8) and Seat Arona (#7) all rank inside the Top 10 Private Sales models in Germany in February.

In the Private sales ranking, the VW Golf falls to only 20.3% Private Sales ratio (PS) but remains #1 with a slim 280-unit advantage over the Fiat Ducato (83.4% PS) whose figure is misleading as it is in fact purchased to be reconfigured as a camper van. The VW Polo (47.6% PS), Tiguan (31.3%) and Mercedes A-Class (41.8% PS) round out the Top 5. The Seat Arona (67.9% PS) shoots up to a fantastic 7th place with German private buyers, the VW T-Cross (62.7%) remains inside the Top 10 at #8 while the Skoda Kamiq (67.7%) breaks into the Private Top 10 for the first time at #9. Other nameplates particularly popular with German private buyers include the Seat Ateca (48.1%) at #11, the Mitsubishi Space Star (64.7%) at #14, the Mazda CX-30 (79.6%) at #17 and the Mitsubishi ASX (74.8%) at #41.

Previous month: Germany January 2020: Porsche (+52.7%), Mitsubishi (+28.5%), Seat (+26.7%) defy market down -7.3%

One year ago: Germany February 2019: VW Group (+3.3%) leads market to first year-on-year gain in 6 months (+2.7%)

Full February 2020 Top 49 All-brands, Top 302 All-models and Top 50 Private sales models below.