Europe Full Year 2023: Tesla Model Y spectacularly takes the lead

The Tesla Model Y is the best-selling vehicle in Europe in 2023.

20/02 update: Now with Top 91 All brands and Top 507 All models

16/02 update: Now with Top 50 brands and models.

Discover over 50 years of European Historical Data here.

Preliminary data from ACEA shows a European market (EU+EFTA+UK) up a robust 13.7% or 1.5 million sales to 12,847,481. BEV sales climb 28.2% to 2,019,041, PHEVs are down -1.2% to 989,937, HEV up 28.3% to 3,397,339, petrol up 10.7% to 4,586,327 and diesel off -6.4% to 1,533,762. The biggest markets for BEVs are Germany at 524,219 sales (+11.4%), France at 298,219 (+47%), Netherlands at 113,981 (+55.6%), Sweden at 112,208 (+18.1%) and Norway at 104,587 (-24.4%). Among the Top 5 markets, Italy (+18.9%) performs best above the UK (+17.9%), Spain (+16.7%), France (+16.1%) and Germany (+7.3%). Bulgaria (+31.5%), Croatia (+31.3%), Belgium (+30.1%), Greece (+27.7%) and Portugal (+26.9%) are the best performing markets overall, while at the other end of the scale Norway (-27.2%), Hungary (-3.4%) and Sweden (+0.6%) fare worst. According to JATO Dynamics, Chinese brands hold a modest 2.6% share vs. 1.7% in 2022, with MG accounting for 72% of the volume. Talks of a Chinese invasion do not match facts for now.

In the groups ranking, the VW Group (+18.5%) beats the market to 3.3 million sales from 2.8 million a year ago while Stellantis (+3.7%) is shy in 2nd place. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (+16.3%) is strong in third place above Hyundai-Kia (+4.3%), the BMW Group (+11.6%) and Toyota Group (+10.2%) all underperforming as does Mercedes (+8.3%) below. Brand-wise and according to final data by JATO Dynamics, Volkswagen (+12.1%) leads the way with 1.34 million sales with Toyota (+7%) in 2nd place like last year. Audi (+19%) surges three spots on 2022 to land on the third step of the podium, knocking BMW (+12.2%) and Mercedes (+8.5%) down to #4 and #5 respectively. Renault (+16%) is up one rank to #6 and Skoda (+25.4%) up two to #7. Peugeot (+1.8%) freefalls three spots to #8 with Kia (+3.3%) and Ford (+0.7%) rounding out the Top 10. Below, Tesla (+55.3%), MG (+103.9%), Cupra (+41.4%) and Suzuki (+42.1%) stand out.

The big event this year is the pole position of the Tesla Model Y in the models charts, a historic event which marks the first time a BEV ranks #1, the first time a non-European model is #1 in Europe and the first time an SUV places first. The Model Y ranked #14 over the Full Year 2022 and is now #1 in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The rest of the podium is unchanged on 2022 with the Dacia Sandero (+17.6%) at #2 and the VW T-Roc (+13.3%) at #3. The Renault Clio (+41.3%) rallies back up from outside the 2022 Top 10 directly to #4, toppling its rival the Peugeot 208 (-6.1%) which led the charts in 2022. The Toyota Yaris Cross (+29.1%) shoots up 8 spots to #8 while the VW Tiguan (+17%) also beats the market but stays at #9. The Skoda Octavia (+43.1%) is back up 14 ranks to #11, the MG ZS (+97%) is up 49 spots to #37 and the Dacia Jogger (+60.1%) up 27 to #40.

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

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

Full December 2023 Top 10 groups, Top 25 brands and Top 485 All models below.

Full Year 2023 Top 10 groups, Top 91 All brands and Top 507 All models vs. Full Year 2022 figures below.