Europe First Half 2026: Tesla Model Y threatens Dacia Sandero for #1

The Dacia Sandero remains the best-selling vehicle in Europe so far this year.

New car sales in Europe (EU+EFTA+UK) grow 5.9% over the First Half of 2026 to 7,245,920 units. ACEA has the market up 6.1% to 7,232,066. Chinese carmakers advance 111.5% year-on-year to 643,468 sales, doubling their share at 8.9% vs. 4.5% over the same period in 2025. Among the Top 5 markets, Italy (+9.5%) performs best, followed by the UK (+9.2%), Spain (+6.2%), Germany (+5.8%) and a much weaker France (+1.8%). Looking at all countries, Estonia (+62.1%) is the best performer ahead of Malta (+30.2%), Slovenia (+21.9%), Lithuania (+16%) and Austria (+15%). Not in great shape are Cyprus (-11.9%), Iceland (-4.8%), the Netherlands (-4.2%), Slovakia (-3.6%) and Norway (-3.5%).

The Tesla Model Y is getting closer to the pole position.

Over H1 2026, BEV sales ascend +35.1% to 1,608,200 and 22.2% share vs. 17.5% over the same period in 2025. PHEVs are up a similarly strong 24.8% to 742,411 and 10.3% share vs. 8.7% over H1 2025. Markets with the biggest BEV volumes are Germany at 368,006 (+48%), the UK at 284,579 (+26.6%), France at 241,562 (+62.9%), Belgium at 83,282 (+8.2%), Denmark at 80,707 (+41.2%), Italy at 79,434 (+77.7%) and Norway at 71,662 (+1.3%). Looking at BEV market share, Norway is the faraway leader at 97.6% followed by Denmark (79.9%), Finland (47.8%), Iceland (42.4%), Sweden (41.5%), Malta (38.3%), the Netherlands (36.5%) and Belgium (36.1%). France is at 28.2%, the UK at 25%, Germany at 24.8%, Spain at 9.8% and Italy at 8.5%. The lowest are Croatia (4%), Poland (5.3%), Slovakia (6.2%), Estonia (6.2%) and Greece (6.3%).

BYD sales are up 144.9% so far this year in Europe.

Only four of the Top 8 OEMs are in positive, and all trail the market. The VW Group (+2.1%) leads the way with 1.84 million units above Stellantis (+4.8%) at 1.11 million, with the BMW Group (+5%) and Mercedes (+0.4%) also up. In contrast, Ford Motor (-13.6%), Hyundai-Kia (-5.1%), the Renault Group (-3.5%) and the Toyota Group (-0.2%) all slow down to various extents. Tesla (+52.6%) surges ahead but it’s the Chinese that do the heavy lifting over the period, with Chery Group up 303.1%, BYD up 144.9%, SAIC up 18% and the Geely Group up 6.6%. Nissan-Mitsubishi (-14.6%) would rather forget 2026 so far.

Skoda advances 10.9% to snap the 2nd spot off Toyota.

As for the brands ranking, Volkswagen (-3%) goes against the positive market and struggles, losing almost 25,000 sales on last year. Skoda (+10.9%) is very strong and overtakes Toyota (+0.6%) to land in 2nd place overall, with BMW (+2%) and Renault (-0.2%) both weak but camping on their 2025 ranking. Mercedes (+0.4%) and Audi (+7.5%) leapfrog past a falling Peugeot (-5.7%) to rank #6 and #7 respectively. Below, Dacia (-9%) and Hyundai (-8.8%) truly disappoint. Stellantis members Fiat (+27.2%), Opel (+10.8%) and Citroen (+10.8%) all deliver solid double-digit gains, but the biggest upticks are below: Chery (+79318.4%), Geely (+1130.8%), Leapmotor (+568.7%), Jaecoo (+243.4%), Omoda (+205.2%), BYD (+144.9%) and Xpeng (+125.2%) all post surreal lifts.

The Jaecoo J5 is the best-selling recent launch over H1 2026.

Model-wise, the Dacia Sandero (-12.2%) manages to keep the overall lead despite a steep YoY fall, but thanks to a fantastic June score the Tesla Model Y (+59%) is less than 2,500 sales below at #2. As a reminder the Model Y ranked #20 over H1 2025 and #15 over the Full Year 2025. The Renault Clio (-11.9%) is also hit hard and drops to #3. Meanwhile the VW Golf (-0.7%) overtakes the T-Roc (-3%) to rank at #4. The Peugeot 208 (-9.2%) is in difficulty and falls three spots to #6. The Toyota Yaris Cross (+1.1%) is the only additional gainer in the Top 10 and ranks at #7. The VW Tiguan (-3.1%), Peugeot 2008 (-7.9%) and Opel Corsa (-5.1%) all disappoint below. Further down, the Skoda Elroq (+68.5%) is up 43 ranks to #29, the Tesla Model 3 (+42%) up 18 to #31, the Citroen C3 Aircross (+299.2%) up 110 to #35 and the Mercedes CLA (+119.8%) up 60 to #37. The best-selling recent launch is the Jaecoo J5 (#118), distancing the Toyota C-HR+ (#143), BYD Seal 06 (#148), Kia EV4 (#150) and Leapmotor B10 (#155).

Previous post: Europe June 2026: Tesla (+50.6%), Chinese (+130.8%) pull market up 12.9%

One year ago: Europe June 2025: Negative market, Skoda up 12.4%, Renault up to #2 with Clio #1 again

Full H1 2026 Top 15 OEMs, Top 91 All brands and Top 816 All models vs. H1 2025 data below.