Europe January 2025: Volkswagen up 16.4%, Tesla down -45.5%

VW sales bounce back up in January.

04/03 update: Now with Top 97 All brands and Top 514 All models (Source JATO)

28/02 update: Now with Top 25 brands and models (Source JATO)

According to preliminary data by ACEA, new car sales in Europe (27 countries EU+UK+EFTA) drops -2.1% year-on-year in January to 995,271 units. Among the Top 5 markets, France (-6.2%), Italy (-5.8%),  Germany (-2.8%) and the UK (-2.5%) struggle whereas Spain (+5.3%) shines. The best performing markets this month are Norway (+82.4%), Lithuania (+33%), Iceland (+30%), Denmark (+22.6%), Austria (+16.5%), Sweden (+14.4%), Hungary (+13.4%) and Latvia (+11.7%). Worst offenders include Estonia (-66.3%), Bulgaria (-30.1%), Slovakia (-16.8%), Greece (-16.4%), Belgium (-13%) and Finland (-12.9%). BEV sales shoot up 37.3% to 166,065 and 16.7% share vs. 11.9% in January 2024 which was a particularly low base with the end of German subsidies. HEVs hold 34.9% share (+16.9%), petrol 29.2% (-20.5%), diesel 8.8% (-26.5%) and PHEV 7.6% (-6.4%).

Looking at the OEM ranking, the VW Group (+5.3%) and Renault Group (+5.4%) both defy the negative market with solid gains but Stellantis (-16%) is in freefall. Hyundai-Kia (-3.7%), the Toyota Group (-4.4%) and the BMW Group (-2.9%) all lose a little market share year-on-year. Brand-wise, Volkswagen (+16.4%) is in splendid form, scoring the only gain in the Top 5, and a sizeable one at that. Toyota (-10%) suffers but stays in 2nd place ahead of BMW (-0.6%), Skoda (-2.1%) and Peugeot (-3.1%). Renault (+19.1%) benefits from a dismal year-ago result but falls six spots on December to #9, below its sister brand Dacia (-3.2%) at #7. Cupra (+51.9%) comfortably outsells Seat (-17.8%) with MG (+15.5%) and Mercedes (+4.2%) also in positive. Tesla (-45.5%) crashes to less than 10,000 sales.

Over in the models charts, despite a heavy loss the Dacia Sandero (-14.9%) confirms it is Europe’s favourite by a large margin. The VW Golf (-5.3%) follows, up three spots on December, as is the Peugeot 208 (+4.9%). Excellent performance by the Dacia Duster (+19.9%) in 4th place like in December just as the VW T-Roc (+6.3%) rounds out the Top 5. The Citroen C3 (+2.7%) at #6 and Fiat Panda (+11.3%) at #9 rally back up inside the Top 10 on dismal December results. The VW Tiguan (+45%) and Opel Corsa (+9.6%) also shine. Further down, the Peugeot 3008 (+31.2%) is up to #17 vs. #35 over the Full Year 2024, the MG ZS (+27.7%) is up to #22 vs. #34 and the VW T-Cross is back up 39% to #24.

Previous post: Europe Full Year 2024: Dacia Sandero signs first ever win

One year ago: Europe January 2024: BMW, Peugeot shine in market up 11.5%

Full January 2025 Top 10 groups, Top 97 All brands and Top 514 All models below.