Last weekend the rain came pouring down from the sky and that seems symbolic for the car market in the month we closed. September wasn’t all that great, October proved that it could be even worse. Fortunately, there are also exceptions.
September scored a minus of 15.8 percent compared to the same month in 2020, October is no less than 23.7 percent behind last year. 24,240 new passenger cars were registered, which is 7,546 less than October 2020. Cumulatively, this means that the counter for the first ten months of 2021 is -7.1 percent. Was it corona then, now it is mainly the chips – or better, the shortage thereof – that cause sad car sellers. Very special things have to happen in the coming months if 2021 does not go down in the history books as a disaster year for the automotive trade.
Fortunately, it is not doom and gloom everywhere. For example, Kia is doing more than 5 percent better this year than last year. In an interview with AutoWeek last week, Hyundai CEO Michael Cole explained that Korean brands can get chips just a bit easier than others, which will undoubtedly have helped sister Kia too. But it is of course above all de Niro who deserves the credit. Last spring was the penny change between the Kia Niro and the Volvo XC40, but in June the Niro finally knocked the XC40 from the first place in the models top ten and he has not relinquished that podium place to date.
Toyota, Volvo and Skoda also managed to amply improve last year, but the sales figures are hard to swallow at the traditional hot sandwich makers Volkswagen, Peugeot and Opel. In the case of electric cars, it is mainly the Kia Niro, the Skoda Enyaq and the Volkswagen ID4 that got their hands on each other in recent months.
You can read the extensive figures with analysis in AutoWeek 45, which will be published on November 10.
Top 10: most popular models October 2021
| 2021 | 2020 | ||
| 1 | Kia Niro | 1.056 | 1,200 |
| 2 | Ford Focus | 908 | 695 |
| 3 | Opel Corsa | 629 | 810 |
| 4 | Volkswagen Polo | 596 | 714 |
| 5 | Peugeot 2008 | 585 | 636 |
| 6 | Lynk & Co 01 | 578 | 0 |
| 7 | Skoda Enyaq | 551 | 0 |
| 8 | Kia Picanto | 520 | 379 |
| 9 | Peugeot 208 | 487 | 643 |
| 10 | Volvo XC40 | 477 | 702 |
Top 10: most popular brands October 2021
| 2021 | 2020 | ||
| 1 | kia | 2.439 | 2.212 |
| 2 | Volkswagen | 2.315 | 4.971 |
| 3 | Peugeot | 1,698 | 2.050 |
| 4 | Toyota | 1,547 | 2.366 |
| 5 | Ford | 1,529 | 1.765 |
| 6 | Opel | 1,528 | 1,855 |
| 7 | Hyundai | 1.452 | 1.166 |
| 8 | Renault | 1.411 | 1,857 |
| 9 | Volvo | 1.145 | 1,314 |
| 10 | skoda | 1.088 | 1,393 |
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl