EU's best-selling car brands: new registrations December 2022-2023

Volkswagen was the best-selling car brand in December 2023, based on new registrations in the European Union. Volkswagen's car sales amounted to over 99,100 units that month, a decrease of two percent year-on-year.

Chip shortage upends recovery

EU car sales dipped by about 23 percent between September 2020 and 2021, most likely as a result of low production levels caused by a shortage of microchips. The European car market had shown signs of a recovery in recent months after contracting significantly between March and August 2020 with car sales in the 27 European markets tumbling to their lowest level in April 2020 at 270,682 units before bouncing back to around 580,000 in May and almost 1.1 million in July, just six percent lower than 2019's figures. In 2020, the worst-hit countries included Croatia, Portugal, and Bulgaria, where car sales declined by more than 35 percent year-on-year. Germany returned to its position as the largest market for passenger cars in Europe after being briefly overtaken by France in June 2020. As the brand with the highest market share in Germany, Volkswagen also managed to keep its leading position in the EU car market.

A shift to electric vehicles

December 2023 sales marked a clear shift towards electric mobility in the European Union, with Tesla entering the ranking of the best-selling brands for that month, while not being among the bestsellers a year earlier, in December 2022. The brand increased its December sales by some 8.9 percent year-over-year. Other brands such as Dacia and Peugeot, typically European favourites, recorded a year-over-year sales decrease in that same period.