Europe Full Year 2024: Dacia Sandero signs first ever win

The Dacia Sandero is the most popular vehicle across Europe in 2024.

Discover over 50 years of European Historical Data here.

31/01 update: Now with Full Year 2024 Top 110 All brands and Top 608 All models.

According to preliminary data by ACEA, the European new car market (27 countries EU+EFTA+UK) ends 2024 up just 0.9% to 12,963,614 units, that’s 116,000 more sales than in 2023. Among the Big 5 markets, Spain is up 7.1%, the UK up 2.6%, Italy is down -0.5%, Germany down -1% and France down -3.2%. The best performing European markets this year are Poland (+16.1%), Bulgaria (+13.8%), Hungary (+12.9%), Croatia (+12.7%) and Estonia (+11.2%). At the other end of the stick, we have Iceland (-41.7%), Finland (-15.4%), Latvia (-8.4%) and Sweden (-7%).

One of the main events of the year is the weakness of BEV sales, at -1.3% to 1,993,102 and 15.4% share vs. 15.7% in 2023. However this is solely due to the collapse of German BEV sales at -27.4% to 380,609 due to the end of incentives. When removing Germany, European BEV sales are actually up a robust 7.9%. Looking at BEV penetration in the Top 5 markets, the UK is in the lead at 19.6% ahead of France at 16.9%, Germany at 13.5%, Spain at 5.6% and Italy at 4.2%. Countries where BEV sales improved the most in 2024 are Malta (+90.5%), Czechia (+63.5%), Cyprus (+51.4%), Hungary (+47.7%), Denmark (+42.2%), Belgium (+36.9%) and Greece (+36.5%). On the other hand, there are worrying trends in Iceland (-69.7%), Romania (-32.2%), Latvia (-28.9%), Slovenia (-27.3%) and Finland (-26%).

The Renault Clio ends 2024 in the European 2nd place.

The Volkswagen Group advances 2.5% to 3.4 million sales, distancing Stellantis in trouble at -7.3%. The Renault Group follows at +3.2% and outsold Stellantis in December like it did in 2023. Hyundai-Kia (-3.9%) struggles just as the Toyota Group (+13.1%) catches up fast and crosses the million annual sales landmark. The BMW Group (+1%) is also in positive. In the brands charts, Volkswagen (+0.8%) matches the market at 1.354 million sales while Toyota (+11.8%) sells almost 100,000 units more than in 2023 and strengthens its 2nd place. BMW (+6.32), Skoda (+12.2%), Mercedes (+1%) and Renault (+2.5%) all progress faster than the market and take advantage of Audi’s fall (-9.6%) from #3 to #7. Peugeot (+1.1%) stays at #8 with Dacia (+3.4%) and Hyundai (-0.01%) rounding out the Top 10. Mitsubishi (+46.4%), Volvo (+28.4%), Lexus (+28.2%) and Cupra (+11.6%) also impress below. Looking at Chinese brands, BYD surges 220% to #31, Omoda lands at #41, Xpeng is up 304.1% to #42 and Jaecoo ranks #53.

Over in the models ranking, the Dacia Sandero (+14.2%) jumps into its first ever annual win. It ranks #1 in Spain and Portugal and is on the podium in France, Italy and Belgium. The Renault Clio (+7.2%) is up two spots on last year to #2 while the VW Golf (+17.4%) rallies back up four rank to #3. Leader last year, the Tesla Model Y (-16.8%) endures the steepest fall in the Top 36 to #4 but still managed to top the charts in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The VW T-Roc (-0.9%) is a little weak and drops to #5. The Peugeot 208 (+3.2%) is relatively solid but falls to #6 just as the next six models all easily beat the market with double-digit gains. The VW Tiguan (+16.6%) is the best performer followed by the Toyota Yaris (+14%), Dacia Duster (+13.1%), Skoda Octavia (+12.4%) and Kia Sportage (+11.3%) all jumping up the charts. The Toyota Yaris Cross (+10.1%) advances one spot to #7 overall.

Previous year: Europe 2023: Tesla Model Y spectacularly takes the lead

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

Full December Top 10 groups, Top 30 brands and Top 50 models below.

Full Year Top 10 groups, Top 110 All brands and Top 608 All models vs. Full Year 2023 data below.