Netherlands Full Year 2021: Kia Niro and Volvo XC40 top market down -9.2%

The Kia Niro is the best-selling vehicle in the Netherlands for the 2nd year running.

Discover 40 years worth of Dutch Historical Data here.

The Dutch new car market skids down -9.2% year-on-year in 2021 to 322,831, and -27.6% on the pre-pandemic volumes of 2019. Volkswagen (-30.3%) remains the most popular carmaker in the country, but its advantage over the #2 Kia (+12.1%) – in outstanding shape – thaws dramatically from 17,800 a year ago to just above 1,000 units this time. In fact, VW only owes its retained leadership to a strong (and artificial?) December volume as Kia was leading after 11 months. Toyota (+0.8%) edges up to overtake Peugeot (-15.2%) for the last spot on the podium. Skoda (+22.4%) manages the largest gain in the Top 10 – and Top 20 – with BMW (+3.7%) snapping the only additional uptick in the remainder of the Top 10 as Opel (-24.65) and Renault (-19.5%) struggle and Volvo (-1.3%) and Ford (-5.7%) contain their loss. Just outside the Top 20, Chinese brand Lynk & Co lands directly at #23 and held 2.3% share or more from October onwards, a strong launch in this market. Cupra leaps up to #27. Notice also Tesla (-53.7%) going well against its trajectory in the rest of Europe and down to #21 overall.

Over in the models ranking, the Kia Niro (-9%) repeats as the overall best-seller with an unchanged 3.3% share, while the Volvo XC40 (-0.3%) leaps up three spots to #2 and the VW Polo (-10.7%) is up one to #3. The Kia Picanto (+20.1%) secures the largest improvement in the Top 15 and climbs 8 ranks to #4. The Skoda Enyaq is by far the most successful 2021 launch, landing directly in 5th place with 2.1% share and ranking #1 overall in November and December. The rest of the Top 10 is composed of small cars: the Toyota Yaris (+0.3%), Peugeot 208 (-12.9%), Opel Corsa (-29.9%) and Toyota Aygo (-6%) as well as one SUV: the Peugeot 2008 (+12%) up 9 spots to #10. The next best new EV and PHEV launches have made themselves noticed towards the end of the year: the Ford Mustang Mach-E ranks #17 but peaked at #2 in December, the Lynk & Co 01 is #24 but ranked #5 in November, the Audi Q4 is #46 but rose to #5 in December, while further down the Cupra Born ranks at #86 but soared to #6 in December.  

Previous month: Netherlands November 2021: Skoda Enyaq scores first win, Lynk & Co in Top 5, market down -17.5%

Previous year: Netherlands 2020: Kia Niro, VW ID.3 and Hyundai Kona top market down -20%

Two years ago: Netherlands 2019: Tesla Model 3 confident #1, hits largest annual model volume since 2000

Full December 2021 Top 45 All-brands and Top 260 All-models below.

Full Year 2021 Top 48 All-brands and Top 353 All-models below.