New car sales increased dramatically in April compared to the same month last year. Not entirely surprising, given last year’s lockdowns. Compared to April 2019, sales are still significantly behind.
1,029,008 new cars were sold in Europe last month, according to figures from JATO. That is 261 percent more than in the month of April last year, which was largely lost due to lockdowns, but still 23 percent less than in April 2019. The Volkswagen Group took the largest market share: 26.8 percent. Stellantis closely follows Volkswagen with a market share of 21.9 percent. Compared to last year, it is especially good news for Stellantis: then PSA and FCA together still accounted for 17 percent of the market share. Volkswagen is losing some ground, because it still had a market share of 29.3 percent at the time. Renault-Nissan (10.5 percent), BMW Group (7.4 percent) and Hyundai-Kia (7.3 percent) complete the top 5 in terms of market share per group.
Last month’s absolute top seller in Europe was the Peugeot 208. Of these, 18,387 units left the showroom. At number two is its bigger brother, the Peugeot 2008, with 18,328 units. The Volkswagen Golf completes the top three, with 17,763 units sold.
Electric cars
Fully and partially electric cars made up 15 percent of European sales in April. An increase compared to last year, when it was a share of 11 percent. Compared to April 2019, the growth is completely evident, when only 3 percent of new cars sold were fully or partly electric.
Last month, the best-selling BEV was the Volkswagen ID4 (7,335 units), followed by the Volkswagen ID3 (5,735). The Renault Zoe, until recently the best-selling BEV in Europe, drops to third place with 4,015 units sold.
Last month’s most popular plug-in hybrid was the Ford Kuga PHEV, with 4,171 sold. The Volvo XC40 follows the second spot with 3,798 units and the Peugeot 3008 in third place with 3,507 units sold.
Fuel mix
Petrol cars are still by far the most popular. Last month, 59 percent of new cars sold were petrol only, compared to 58 percent in April last year. Diesels are rapidly losing popularity. In April last year they accounted for a share of 31 percent, in April this year it was still 24 percent. As mentioned, partially and fully electric cars together accounted for 15 percent of the market share.