The Dacia Sandero is Europe's best-selling car model. For the first time, the sub-compact, launched in 2008, tops the EU ranking.
With its 20,466 registrations in July 2021 (26 EU countries), the Dacia beats the VW Golf (19,425 registrations), which otherwise leads this ranking. Behind it in third place is the Toyota Yaris with 18,858 new registrations. Since the Sandero was able to increase by six percent compared to July 2020 and the Golf lost 37 percent of registrations at the same time, the small Dacia managed the feat of tripping the Golf Goliath.
Like the Golf, the entire European market had to take a beating in the month under review: registrations fell by 24 percent from 1.27 million vehicles to 967,830. This decline is due to the effects of the corona pandemic but also to the chip shortage in the automotive industry .
Mazda MX-5 behind Porsche 911
The top 3 vehicle segments in Europe are very different from those in the German market. In the sub-compact class, with the Dacia Sandero at the top, a VW Polo is only in third place behind the Toyota Yaris. A Honda Jazz manages third place in the MPV segment and in the sports car segment it slides between the Porsche 911 and BMW Z4 the Mazda MX-5. You can see all other top 3 placements in our photo show.
By the way: In the 26 European countries, consumers like low-emission vehicles. A total of 160,646 BEV and PHEV vehicles were registered in July, which corresponds to almost 17% of the total registrations. This is the second-highest monthly market share after June 2021 and the third-highest ever in Europe - 47 percent of which was for pure electric cars. As a newcomer among electric cars in July, the VW ID.3 took first place with 5,433 models. The ID.4 and the VW Up are also among the top 10.
Conclusion
Corona and a lack of chips are affecting the European car markets, the minus is 24 percent compared to July 2020. Looking at models, the Dacia Sandero is the best-selling model in 26 EU countries for the first time. Only in second place follows the dethroned VW Golf. For this, VW can score points with an electric model. Here the ID.3 is by far the number one – but at a low approval level.
