Europe Full Year 2022: Peugeot 208 ends VW Golf’s 14-year domination, market down -4.1%

The Peugeot 208 is the best-selling vehicle in Europe for the first time.

Discover 50 years of European Historical Data here.

15/02/23 update: Now with all 475 models and all 85 brands for both December and Full Year 2022.

Despite a strong recovery from October onward – three double-digit gains including +14.8% in December at 1,091,119, the European market (EU+EFTA+UK) ends 2022 in negative at -4.1% to 11,286,939 units. This is according to ACEA data. Among the five major markets, Germany (+1.1%) is the only one in positive with the UK (-2%) keeping its loss below the market rate but Spain (-5.4%), France (-7.8%) and Italy (-9.7%) all in trouble. The best performing countries this year are Iceland (+30.4%), Bulgaria (+16.9%), Latvia (+16.5%), Cyprus (+9.4%) and Romania (+6.7%). Reversely Denmark (-20%), Lithuania (-18.8%), Finland (-17%), Slovenia (-14.2%) and Austria (-10.3%) fare the worst with double-digit falls.

Looking at the group ranking, the VW Group (-5.7%) falls slightly faster than the market but easily keeps the top spot with just under 2.8 million sales. It’s a year to forget volume-wise for Stellantis (-13.7%) falling from 2.38 to 2.05 million sales. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (-4.2%) follows the market in third place above Hyundai-Kia (+4.2%) posting a solid gain. The BMW Group (-4.8%) holds its own just as the Toyota Group soars 6% and drastically reduces its gap with the BMW Group from almost 100,000 to 12,000 sales. Daimler (-3.5%), Ford (-0.3%) and the Geely Group (-3.5%) manage to keep their fall below the market rate while Tesla is estimated to surge 38% to find a spot inside the Top 10.

The Dacia Sandero ends 2022 at a record 2nd place in Europe.

Brand-wise, Volkswagen (-6.9%) stays on top with almost 1.2 million sales or 89,000 less than in 2021. One of the big stories of the year is Toyota (+7.6%) establishing itself in 2nd position overall thanks notably to two very successful additions to its European lineup: the Yaris Cross and Aygo X. BMW (-5.4%) also gains one spot on last year to end 2022 at a splendid 3rd place above Mercedes (-1.5%) up two to #4. It’s a difficult year for Peugeot (-14.5%) falling from #2 to #5. Audi (+2.9%) edges up one spot to #6 whereas Renault (-14.1%) is down two to #7. Kia (+7.9%) posts the largest gain in the Top 10, a Top 10 it breaks into for the first time at #8 vs. #11 in 2021. Skoda (-8.5%) slides down to #9 and Hyundai (+0.5%) rounds out the Top 10 like last year.

The Peugeot 208 (+4.8%) ends 14 consecutive years of VW Golf domination and takes charge of the European charts for the first time in the nameplate’s history. The 208 led the monthly charts in April, May, June and October. The Dacia Sandero (+1.4%) also steps up one spot to a best-ever 2nd place and topped the monthly charts in January. The VW T-Roc (-3.2%) also breaks its ranking record at #3, up 3 spots on 2021. It was #1 in July and August, the first time this happened for the nameplate. Leader since 2008 without interruption, the VW Golf (-13.9%) endures the biggest fall in the Top 10 and drops three spots to #4, it still ranked #1 in February. The Toyota Yaris (-4.2%) is up two spots to an all-time high #5 and the Fiat 500 (+6%) is up four to a record 6th place. Notice also the Hyundai Tucson (+0.5%) up six spots to #8 and the Dacia Duster (+1.4%) also up six to #10. The Tesla Model Y (+423.5%) is up to #14 for the year and remarkably topped the charts in September, November and December. Finally the Tesla Model 3 (-35.3%) is down to #33 but was #1 in March and #2 in December.

Previous year: Europe 2021: Toyota (+10.2%), Hyundai (+21.6%) and Kia (+20.6%) can’t help market down -1.5%

Two years ago: Europe 2020: Market down -24%, Toyota (-11.9%), Skoda (-11.6%) resist

Full Year 2022 Top 10 groups, Top 85 all brands and Top 475 all models vs. Full Year 2021 figures below.

Full December 2022 Top 10 groups, Top 75 all brands and Top 435 all models below.