Italy January 2021: Toyota (+19%) places Yaris at #2 again, defies market down -14.1%

The Toyota Yaris ranks #2 in Italy for the second month running. Picture quattroruote.it

New car sales in Italy start the year with a -14.1% year-on-year drop in January to 134.772 units. Stable private sales pull the market up at -0.7% to 91.561 and 67.9% share vs. 58.8% in January 2020. Self-registrations drop -20.1% to 15.643 and 11.6% vs. 12.5%, long-term rentals match the market at -14% to 19.983 and 14.8% share but short-term rentals implode -92.5% to just 1.066 and 0.8% share vs. 9% a year ago. Looking at fuel type, sales of petrol vehicles freefall -33.3% to 48.487 and 36% share vs. 46.4% in January 2020, diesel is down -31.1% to 36.302 and 26.9% vs. 33.6% and GPL is down -15% to 8.185 and a stable 6.1% share. The good news is green cars continue to surge. HEV sales are up 127.6% to 32.800 and 24.3% share vs. 9.2% a year ago, PHEV is up 179.6% to 3.760 and 2.8% share vs. 0.9% while BEV sales are up a more discreet 28.2% to 2.494 and 1.9% share vs. 1.2% in January 2020.

Over in the brands ranking, both leaders fall significantly faster than the market: Fiat is off -21.9% to a tiny 15.1% share while Volkswagen drops -25.6% to 8.3%. Peugeot (-6.8%) resists much better and climbs two spots on last month to land on the third step of the podium, just as Ford (-1.9%) advances to #4. In 5th place, Toyota (+19%) delivers by far the best performance atop the charts with the only double-digit gain in the Top 12 and the largest uptick in the Top 15. BMW (+0.4%) is also up in the remainder of the Top 10 while Renault (-7.1%) and Jeep (-8.4%) resist. Further down the charts, Smart (+49.2%), Lexus (+23.7%), Suzuki (+21.3%), DR Motor (+18.8%), Mercedes (+12.9%), Volvo (+6.1%), Skoda (+5.2%), Audi (+3.6%), Maserati (+2.9%) and Subaru (+1.4%) all manage lifts in a depressed context.

Model-wise, the Fiat Panda (-15.9%) remains out of reach at 9% share while the Toyota Yaris (+101.4%) more than doubles its sales year-on-year to repeat at #2 like in December. The Lancia Ypsilon (-35.3%) is pushed down to third place above the Citroen C3 (+3.1%) and Jeep Renegade (+5.9%), both up. The Opel Corsa (-3.4%) rallies back up 18 spots on December to land at #6 vs. #13 over the Full Year 2020. The VW T-Roc (+23.6%) and Peugeot 208 (+15.2%) also post stellar gains below while the Dacia Duster (+4.6%) is back up 27 spots on December to #9. Notable improvers below include the Ford Puma (+34%), Peugeot 2008 (#14), Renault Captur (+59.9%), BMW 1 Series (+32.7%), Suzuki Swift (+57.5%), Audi Q3 (+30.6%) and BMW X1 (+27.8%).

Previous post: Italy Full Year 2020: Market falls -27.7% to weakest since 2014, Fiat hits lowest volume since 1959

One year ago: Italy January 2020: Opel Corsa at highest in 8 years, Peugeot 3008 breaks into Top 10 in market down -5.8%

Full January 2021 Top 42 All-brands and Top 50 models below.