Spain January 2021: Hyundai Tucson up to record #3, Cupra Formentor in Top 25, sales freefall -51.5%

First podium finish for the Hyundai Tucson in Spain.

The Spanish new car market freefalls -51.5% year-on-year to just 41.966 units, the steepest fall ever for a month of January, the largest year-on-year drop since last May and the lowest January tally since at least 1989. There are a series of explanations for this particularly harsh drop: Covid-19 restrictions whereas these were not in place yet a year ago, two less selling days, lockdowns associated with the Filomena storm, the hangover from an artificially boosted December but most importantly an increase of the Registration Tax and the end of the RENOVE subsidy plans. Without these two factors the drop would have been much less severe.

Spanish market: last 12 month year-on-year evolution. Source: ANFAC

Seat (-44.4%) reclaims the brands top spot it held over the Full Year 2020 with 10.8% share ahead of Peugeot (-47.2%) and Toyota (-45.1%) climbing on the podium for the first time since last August. This trio behaves better than the market but the following two carmakers do even better: Renault (-30.9%) and Dacia (-39.6%) manage solid holds in the current context, Dacia slicing its FY2020 ranking in two to #5. In contrast, all remaining Top 10 brands bar Hyundai (-50.8%) endure catastrophic losses with Volkswagen (-73.2%) and Citroen (-58.1%) hit the hardest. Further down, Cupra (+1422.2%) comes into life thanks to the new Formentor, with Ferrari (+100%), Tesla (+43.8%), Ssangyong (+24.6%), Maserati (+9.1%) and Porsche (+6.1%) also posting year-on-year gains. Although anecdotal for now, we have two new Chinese brands in the Spanish charts this month: SWM with 2 sales and Jiangnan with one.

The Seat Leon is the best-selling vehicle in Spain in January.

Over in the models ranking, the Seat Leon (-33.7%) claims the top spot for the third time in the past five months but it is only 47 units above last year’s winner the Dacia Sandero (-43.2%). After ranking 8th in November and 5th in December, the Hyundai Tucson (-15.5%) improves further to a record third place (previous best #4 in December 2016) thanks to a mix of discounted previous gens and dealership new gens. The Toyota Corolla (-33.5%) rallies back up 15 spots on December to #4 above the Seat Ateca (-48.3%) up 19 to #5, the Renault Captur (-9.1%) up 3 to #6 and the Peugeot 2008 (+25.2%) down 3 to #7. The Cupra Formentor surges 78 spots on last month to break into its home Top 25 at a splendid #24 with 1.3% share.

Previous post: Spain Full Year 2020: Dacia Sandero ends 12 years of Seat domination in market down -32.3%

One year ago: Spain January 2020: Peugeot cements lead, Seat Ateca up to record #4 in market down -7.5%

Full January 2021 Top 50 All-brands and Top 263 All-models below.