Portugal February 2021: Peugeot up to 19% share, 208 #1 in market imploding -59%

The Peugeot 208 is the best-selling vehicle in Portugal in February.

As the country was in lockdown for the entire month, new car sales in Portugal implode -59% year-on-year in February to just 8.311 units, the worst fall in Europe for the month so far. This leads to a year-to-date tally down -47.1% to 18.340. Peugeot (-34.8%) manages to almost halve the market fall to tighten its grip on the Portuguese market at 19% share vs. 16% so far this year, that’s almost double the #2 Mercedes (-45.1%) at 10.3%. Citroen (-48.1%) advances 6 spots on January to land on the third step of the podium with BMW (-56.2%) and Toyota (-56.7%) the only remaining Top 10 carmakers to beat the market. Reversely, Renault (-79.5%), Fiat (-66%), Opel (-65.8%), Volkswagen (-64.4%) and Seat (-62.6%) all fall even faster than the market. Further down, Tesla (+89.2%) goes completely against the depressed trend with a splendid surge, alongside Smart (+21.4%) the only two brands in positive this month.

Model-wise, after the Peugeot 2008 scored its first ever win last month, in February it’s the turn of the Peugeot 208 (-14.6%) to take the lead of the Portuguese charts thanks to a very limited fall in context. The Citroen C3 (-30.7%) lurches up 8 spots on January to #2 while the Peugeot 2008 (-21.6%) is down two to #3 as is the Mercedes A-Class (-50.8%). The Renault Captur (-27.4%) is up two ranks to #5, the Opel Corsa (-52%) up 7 to #6, the Toyota Yaris (-33.2%) up 11 to #7 and the Seat Arona (-42.7%) up five to #9. Just outside the Top 10, the Mercedes GLC (+15.5%) is up 11 spots on last month to #11 and the Tesla Model 3 (+115.6%) is up 108 to #15. The new Citroen C4 (#28) is the most successful recent launch (<12 months).

Previous month: Portugal January 2021: Peugeot 2008 secures first ever win in market down -30.5%

One year ago: Portugal January-February 2020: Renault Clio #1, Nissan Micra hits record heights

Full February 2021 Top 40 All-brands and Top 220 All-models below.