Europe April 2021: Market off -22.7% on 2019, Toyota, Land Rover and Mini stand out, Peugeot manages 1-2 again

Land Rover sales are up 5.5% on two years ago in a market down -22.7%.

03/06 update: Now with Top 57 brands and 330 All-models.

02/06 update: Now with Top 100 models.

28/05 update: Now with Top 10 models.

Preliminary data from ACEA show new car sales in Europe (EU+EFTA+UK) up 255.9% year-on-year in April to 1.039.810 registrations, but down -22.7% vs. two years ago in April 2019. The year-to-date tally is now up 23.1% year-on-year at 4.120.443 but remains off -25% on the same period in 2019. Only Norway (+17%) manages a gain vs. April 2019, with Denmark (-4%), Estonia (-5.5%), Finland (-9.3%) and the UK (-12.1%) the least affected. At the other end of the scale, Croatia (-52.1%), Cyprus (-37.3%), Iceland (-34.7%) and Spain (-34.2%) are the worst hit. Year-to-date and again vs. 2019, Sweden (+8.3%) is the only market in positive, with Norway (-0.5%), Finland (-5.2%), Estonia (-6.7%), Hungary (-8.6%) and Greece (-12.8%) faring the best. In contrast, Portugal (-43.1%), Spain (-39.3%), Romania (-38%), the UK (-34.2%) and Slovakia (-32.3%) are struggling.

All evolutions below are vs. April 2019. In the groups ranking, the Volkswagen Group (-16.5%) drops slower than the market to retain the top spot above Stellantis (-26.5%) in difficulty while Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (-41.9%) sinks. The Toyota Group (-2.7%), BMW Group (-9.5%) and Hyundai-Kia (-13.9%) resist well, Daimler (-21.5%) roughly matches the market and Ford Motor (-38.1%) posts a steep decline. Rounding out the Top 10, Volvo (-11.8%) is in good shape and Jaguar Land Rover (+13.7%) snaps the only gain vs. two years ago, and a double-digit one at that.

The Peugeot 2008 misses out on a European pole position for just 60 sales…

The Top 7 brands outpace the market, with Volkswagen (-20.9%), Peugeot (-18.3%) and Mercedes (-18.5%) retaining the podium spots. Toyota (-1.2%) scores the only single-digit loss in the Top 10, with Audi (-12.3%), BMW (-13.2%) and Skoda (-13.8%) also resisting well given the environment. On the other hand, Renault (-38.7%), Ford (-37.5%), Opel/Vauxhall (-34.4%) and Fiat (-29.1%) would rather forget the month. Further down, Kia (-5.9%) stands out and we have two gainers in the Top 30: Land Rover (+5.5%) and Mini (+6.2%) lifted by the UK market recovery. DS (-0.1%) and Lancia (-9.3%) also fare well.

Over in the models ranking, Peugeot repeats its performance of February by managing a fantastic 1-2: the Peugeot 208 (-7%) reclaims the pole position it also holds year-to-date while the Peugeot 2008 (+13.5%) is up 8 spots on March to #2 and shoots up to #4 year-to-date. The VW Golf (-49.6%) is knocked down to #3 and remains #2 so far this year. The Toyota Yaris (+1.6%) is back up two spots to #4 as is the VW T-Roc (+0.4%) to #5. The Opel Corsa (+2.3%) and Renault Clio (-42.2%) follow. It’s worth noting that in an incredibly fragmented market only 1.528 sales separate the #1 from the #7 models this month. Notice also the Peugeot 3008 (-16.7%) back up 7 spots on last month to #10. The VW ID.4 (#46) leads recent launches above the Citroen C4 (#56) and VW ID.3 (#57).

Previous month: Europe March 2021: Peugeot, Fiat, Citroen headline market back up 62.7%

One year ago: Europe April 2020: Lockdown ghost month (-78.2%) sees BMW (-64%), Skoda (-61%) hit record ranking

Full April 2021 Top 10 groups, Top 57 brands and Top 330 All-models below.