Germany April 2021: VW Golf down to lowest ever share in market up 90% on 2020 but down -26.1% on 2019

The VW Golf is down to just 3.1% share at home.

New car sales in Germany bounce back up 90% year-on-year in April to 229.650 units, however this is down -26.1% on the 310.715 sales of two years  ago in April 2019. The year-to-date tally is now in positive at +7.8% year-on-year and 886.102 units but down -25.6% on two years ago (1.190.807). Volkswagen (+108.4%) outpaces its home market to end the month with a 18.8% share vs. 19.5% so far this year while Mercedes (+158.5%) does even better in 2nd place and 9.6% of the market. In fact the entire Top 7 brands are unchanged on last month and year-to-date, with BMW (+64.7%) and Audi (+87.4%) in tow. Opel (+174.6%) confirms it is back in the game with a splendid lift just as Skoda (+88.4%) and more dramatically Ford (+28%) can’t match the market’s growth. Below, Mazda (+147.2%), Hyundai (+135%), Peugeot (+123.4%) and Citroen (+115.2%) stand out.

In the models ranking, the VW Golf (+26.8%) swoops to what we at BSCB believe is its lowest share ever at just 3.1%, reducing the gap with the 2nd-placed VW Tiguan (+101.9%) to just over 1.600 sales. Cannibalising Golf sales is the VW T-Roc (+132.4%) which repeats at an outstanding third place with 2.1% share ahead of the Opel Corsa (+193.9%) and Fiat Ducato (+88.9%). The VW Passat (+120.2%) remains in 6th place overall but ranks third year-to-date. At #10, the VW Up (+364.1%) is spectacularly lifted by its EV variant representing 68.5% of its April volume. The Mercedes GLC (+241.6%), A-Class (+168%), Opel Astra (+154.2%) and VW Transporter (+144.4%) also achieve very strong gains below. The VW ID.3 is back up 16 spots on March to top recent launches at #26, distancing the VW ID.4 at #56 and the Opel Mokka at #59.

Previous month: Germany March 2021: Opel, Hyundai fuel market up 35.9% on 2020 but down -15.4% on 2019

One year ago: Germany April 2020: Sales drop limited to -61.1% to lowest month since August 1982

Full April 2021 Top 50 brands and Top 305 models below.