Volkswagen, Renault, Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda had hefty sales bumps in January, while Stellantis lost a mere 300 sales; as a result, while Stellantis’ sales in Europe were essentially unchanged, its share fell from 19% to 17%.
Volkswagen saw a 12% gain, with all its mainstream brands but SEAT rising. Renault was up a stunning 24% on the strength of Dacia’s 42% gain and Renault’s 11% rise. Toyota was up by 11%, bit-player Nissan by 21%, and bit-player Mazda by 42%.
Stellantis’ results were mixed by brand, likely due to production issues. Peugeot, still its leading seller, dropped by 10% while Fiat, #2, rose by 15%. Opel/Vauxhall fell by 11%—which reinforces the idea that production shortfalls were the culprit, since Peugeot and Opel largely share now; but Citroën was up 2%, so that theory may not work.
Jeep was up by 8.5%, keeping its usual 1% market share, while DS and Alfa Romeo were both up; DS sales rose by 22% while Alfa more than doubled, hitting the same 0.4% market share as Lancia and DS—reportedly due the Tonale, which is based on the Jeep Compass. The combined Dodge, Maserati, and Ram only sold 839 vehicles—still, up from 365 in January 2022.
Tesla remains a small player in Europe (defined as EU, EFTA, and UK), with 9,469 sales—ten times its January 2022 sales, admittedly, and a 1.2% total market share. That means Tesla outsold Jeep in January. The smallest players were Honda (4,690 sales) and Mitsubishi (2,496 sales).
It was an interesting month in terms of the European transition from diesels to hybrids to electric cars. The largest sellers remain gasoline powered cars at 38%; diesel, once the European standby, was down to 16%. Hybrid-electrics were up to 26%, not counting plug-in hybrids (another 7%). Battery-electrics were good for 9.5% of the market, a number which is climbing. the remaining 4% of sales were listed as “other,” presumably hydrogen and possibly alcohol.
