Europe April 2024: Volvo (+61.6%), Toyota (+45.4%), Suzuki (+40.2%) shine in market up 12%

Seat sales surge 27% year-on-year in April.

31/05 update: Now with Top 89 All brands and Top 477 All models.

Preliminary data from ACEA shows a European market (EU+EFTA+UK) up 12% year-on-year to 1,080,913 units, partly due to two additional working days. This means the year-to-date tally is now up 6.5% or almost 275,000 sales to 4,476,369. All major Top 5 markets are in positive, with Spain up 23.1%, Germany up 19.8%, France up 10.9%, Italy up 7.5% and UK up 1%. Soaring markets include Cyprus (+105.4%), Bulgaria (+51.3%), Romania (+34.6%), Greece (+31.3%) and Denmark (+27.1%). At the other end of the scale, 8 markets are in negative, with the hardest hit being Iceland (-16.4%), Finland (-15.7%), Malta (-14.1%) and Estonia (-9.8%). Year-to-date, the UK (+8.4%) fare best among the Top 5 markets, followed by Germany and Spain (+7.8%), France (+7%) and Italy (+6.1%). Among other markets, Bulgaria (+47.9%), Cyprus (+26%), Malta (+16.6%) and Poland (+15.5%) stand out whereas Iceland (-46.4%), Estonia (-14.9%), Finland (-13%) and Latvia (-11.8%) struggle.

BEV sales’ growth has slowed down. They gain just 14.4% to 144,656 and 13.4% share, almost unchanged vs. 13.2% a year ago in April 2023. 29,668 BEVs were registered in Germany (-0.2%) for a 12.2% share, 24,850 in France (+45.2%) for a 16.9% share, 22,717 in the UK (+10.7%) for a 16.9% share, 10,051 in Norway (+34.5%) for a 89.4% share and 9,181 in Belgium (+41.6%) for a 23% share. Year-to-date, BEVs are up 6% to 593,325 and 13.3% share, unchanged on the same period in 2023. The largest market for BEVs are Germany at 111,005 (actually down -10.8%), France at 104,673 (+27.7%), the UK at 107,031 (+10.6%) and Belgium at 40,272 (+47.7%). For April, PHEV sales are up 5.5% to 74,766 and 6.9% share vs. 7.3% a year ago, HEV registrations surge 29.1% to 318,854 and 29.5% share vs. 25.6% in April 2023, petrol is up 4.6% to 387,288 and 35.8% share vs. 38.4% last year and diesel edges down -0.8% to 124,943 and 11.6% share vs. 13%. Note petrol and diesel sales combined only account for 46.5% of the market.

The Dacia Sandero dominates the European models ranking.

In the groups ranking, the VW Group (+14%) beats the market to surpass the 300,000 sales mark. Stellantis (-1.5%) underperforms at #2 while Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (+12.3%) equals the overall growth. The Toyota Group (+42%) surges ahead but stays at #5 below Hyundai-Kia. Brand-wise, Volkswagen (+16.6%) is solid ahead of Toyota (+45.4%) and BMW (+25%) both vastly outpacing the market. Skoda (+16.7%) is up three spots on March to #4, a ranking it also holds year-to-date vs. #7 over the Full Year 2023. Hyundai (+18.6%) and Dacia (+12.4%) are the only two remaining Top 10 carmakers gaining share year-on-year, while Mercedes (+12.1%) matches it. Audi (-3.9%) and Peugeot (-1.1%) disappoint while Renault (+10.8%) is soft. Below, Volvo (+61.6%) and Suzuki (+40.2%) and Seat (+27%) stand out.

In the models ranking, the Dacia Sandero (+38.3%) confirms it is the new favourite of European car buyers as it reclaims the top spot it holds year-to-date. The VW Gol (+67.2%) rallies back up year-on-year to stay at #2 both for the month and YTD. The Renault Clio (+25%) is up three spots on March to #3 with the VW T-Roc (+16.3%) and Peugeot 208 (+17.8%) rounding out the Top 5. In fact the entire Top 10 beats the market, with the Citroen C3 (+96.2%) and Toyota Yaris (+69.1%) the most dynamic above the Skoda Octavia (+34%), Ford Puma (+27.6%) and VW Tiguan (+22.5%). #1 last month, the Tesla Model Y (-8.6%) freefalls to #27 and is now down to #8 year-to-date. The Volvo EX30 is by far the best-selling recent launch, up 21 ranks on last month to #39.

Previous month: Europe March 2024: Toyota (+9%), BMW (+9.4%) impress in negative market, Dacia Sandero #1 over Q1

One year ago: Europe April 2023: Dacia (+44.2%), Skoda (+41.4%), Renault (+36.8%) highlight market up 16.1%, Dacia Sandero #1

Full Europe April 2024 Top 10 groups, Top 89 All brands and Top 477 All models below.