Seat sales surge 63.1% year-on-year in April.
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.
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 (+14.4%) is solid ahead of Toyota (+42.4%) and BMW (+23.2%) both vastly outpacing the market. Skoda (+14.7%) is up three spots on March to #4, a ranking it also holds year-to-date vs. #7 over the Full Year 2023. Hyundai (+17.6%) and Dacia (+12.6%) are the only two remaining Top 10 carmakers gaining share year-on-year. Audi (-5.1%) and Peugeot (-2.3%) disappoint while Renault (+10.6%) and Mercedes (+4.8%) are soft. Below, Seat (+63.1%), Volvo (+59%) and Suzuki (+33.7%) stand out.
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 and Top 30 brands below.
Europe April 2024 – groups (Source ACEA):
| Pos | Group | Apr-24 | /23 | Mar | 2024 | /23 | Pos | FY23 |
| 1 | Volkswagen Group | 300,598 | + 14.0% | 1 | 1,128,943 | + 4.0% | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Stellantis | 166,534 | – 1.5% | 2 | 764,604 | + 2.9% | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi | 134,854 | + 12.3% | 3 | 573,192 | + 10.7% | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Hyundai-Kia | 91,361 | + 1.8% | 4 | 369,739 | – 0.6% | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | Toyota Group | 84,329 | + 42.0% | 5 | 345,684 | + 17.9% | 5 | 6 |
| 6 | BMW Group | 74,551 | + 11.6% | 6 | 309,305 | + 12.0% | 6 | 5 |
| 7 | Mercedes | 54,160 | + 4.8% | 7 | 227,117 | – 2.9% | 7 | 7 |
| 8 | Ford Motor | 36,066 | – 12.8% | 8 | 152,552 | – 15.2% | 8 | 8 |
| 9 | Volvo | 33,767 | + 59.0% | 10 | 125,891 | + 38.0% | 9 | 10 |
| 10 | Suzuki | 17,318 | + 33.7% | n/a | 76,049 | + 31.9% | 11 | n/a |
Europe April 2024 – brands (Source ACEA):
| Pos | Brand | Apr-24 | /23 | Mar | 2024 | /23 | Pos | FY23 |
| 1 | Volkswagen | 122,489 | + 14.4% | 1 | 446,319 | + 0.6% | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Toyota | 78,347 | + 42.4% | 2 | 323,007 | + 16.3% | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | BMW | 65,357 | + 23.2% | 3 | 261,304 | + 20.1% | 3 | 4 |
| 4 | Skoda | 60,794 | + 14.7% | 7 | 247,917 | + 12.2% | 4 | 7 |
| 5 | Renault | 58,841 | + 10.6% | 5 | 219,587 | + 3.4% | 7 | 6 |
| 6 | Audi | 56,057 | – 5.1% | 8 | 220,297 | – 7.5% | 6 | 3 |
| 7 | Mercedes | 51,884 | + 4.9% | 4 | 218,875 | – 3.3% | 8 | 5 |
| 8 | Peugeot | 50,801 | – 2.3% | 6 | 235,053 | + 1.8% | 5 | 8 |
| 9 | Dacia | 50,153 | + 12.6% | 11 | 201,649 | + 5.3% | 9 | 10 |
| 10 | Hyundai | 46,618 | + 17.6% | 10 | 181,845 | + 5.0% | 11 | 11 |
| 11 | Kia | 44,743 | – 10.6% | 9 | 187,894 | – 5.4% | 10 | 9 |
| 12 | Ford | 36,066 | – 12.8% | 14 | 152,552 | – 15.2% | 13 | 12 |
| 13 | Volvo | 33,767 | + 59.0% | 17 | 125,891 | + 38.0% | 16 | 18 |
| 14 | Seat | 33,167 | + 63.1% | 19 | 103,764 | + 16.5% | 18 | 19 |
| 15 | Citroën | 32,862 | + 18.5% | 15 | 147,650 | + 12.9% | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | Opel/Vauxhall | 31,049 | – 16.8% | 13 | 153,082 | – 0.5% | 12 | 13 |
| 17 | Fiat | 29,613 | – 2.3% | 18 | 130,833 | – 2.3% | 15 | 14 |
| 18 | Nissan | 21,692 | + 14.2% | 12 | 124,475 | + 22.7% | 17 | 17 |
| 19 | Suzuki | 17,318 | + 33.7% | 21 | 76,049 | + 31.9% | 20 | 22 |
| 20 | MG | 17,091 | + 12.9% | 20 | 75,912 | + 26.6% | 21 | 20 |
| 21 | Cupra | 16,862 | + 10.9% | 22 | 66,088 | + 20.7% | 22 | 21 |
| 22 | Tesla | 13,951 | – 2.3% | 16 | 100,124 | – 7.9% | 19 | 16 |
| 23 | Mazda | 13,742 | + 17.2% | 23 | 58,896 | – 6.3% | 23 | 24 |
| 24 | Porsche | 10,436 | + 26.7% | n/a | 41,591 | + 17.9% | 27 | 27 |
| 25 | Land Rover | 10,327 | + 9.0% | 24 | 46,497 | + 11.2% | 26 | 26 |
| 26 | Jeep | 10,260 | + 17.5% | n/a | 47,251 | + 15.4% | 25 | 25 |
| 27 | Mini | 9,194 | – 33.1% | 25 | 48,002 | – 18.2% | 24 | 23 |
| 28 | Lexus | 5,982 | + 36.7% | n/a | 22,677 | + 45.3% | 30 | 29 |
| 29 | Honda | 5,887 | + 49.6% | n/a | 30,017 | + 49.5% | 28 | 28 |
| 30 | Alfa Romeo | 4,275 | – 6.2% | n/a | 16,851 | – 1.4% | 31 | 30 |
Source: ACEA
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