In a month of January marked by the recession of the European car market (the fall compared to the same period of 2020 was 26%), the Toyota Yaris Surprisingly, it achieved sales leadership in the “Velho Continente”.
A total of 839,600 new cars were registered across Europe in January (compared with 1.13 million in January 2020), with the Yaris being in counter-cycle — the novelty effect of the new generation is still great — in which its sales grew 3% in the same period, reaching 18,094 units sold.
A value that guaranteed it first place in the sales chart, with two other SUVs appearing behind it: the Peugeot 208 and the Dacia Sandero. The French saw sales fall 15%, recording 17,310 units sold, while the new Sandero sold 15 922 units and, being a new generation, like the Yaris, saw sales grow 13% compared to January 2020.
Peugeot 208
Interestingly, the usual sales leaders in Europe, the Volkswagen Golf and the Renault Clio, fell respectively for 4th and 7th places. The German sold 15,227 units (-42%), while the French sold 14,446 units (-32%).
SUV on the rise
According to data released by JATO Dynamics, the other big highlight in the January 2021 sales figures is related to SUVs. In January they achieved a market share of 44%, the highest ever in the European market.
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Among these, the leadership belonged to the Peugeot 2008, the sixth best-selling model in January in Europe with 14,916 units (+87%), followed by the Volkswagen T-ROC with 13,896 units (-7%) and the Renault Captur with 12 231 units (-2%).
As if to prove this success, among the models that saw sales grow the most compared to January 2020, the majority are SUV/Crossover. Just look at the examples of the Ford Kuga (+258%), Ford Puma (+72%), Suzuki Ignis (+25%), Porsche Macan (+23%), Mercedes-Benz GLA (+18%), BMW X3 ( +12%) or Kia Niro (+12%).
And the builders?
In terms of absolute sales, Volkswagen dominated in January with 90 651 new vehicles registered (-32%). Behind it are Peugeot, with 61,251 units (-19%) and Toyota, which had 54,336 units (-19%) sold in the first month of the year.
Finally, with regard to car groups, the Volkswagen Group led in January, accumulating 212 457 units sold (-28%), followed by the recently created Stellantis, with 178 936 units (-27%) and by the Renault-Nissan Alliance -Mitsubishi with 100 540 units (-30%).
Sources: JATO Dynamics.