Europe’s car market registered a significant growth this past month, with a total of 1.28 million cars finding new owners. One of the big winners was Tesla, with the Model 3 missing out on the top 10 sales rankings by just 217 units.
“The overall growth posted in August-September indicates that, despite the market’s new challenges, consumer demand continues to be strong in Europe. This is a good sign for the coming months, when the looming CO2 targets become even more pressing for the industry,” said JATO analyst Felipe Munoz.
In terms of countries, 14 European markets showed growth during both August and September, with Germany and Italy growing by 9.1% and 6.5% respectively. However, Spain’s September growth (+19%) was not big enough to offset the decline in August (-30%).
Also read: Tesla Model 3 Is Officially The Netherlands’ Best-Selling Car
“Despite the negative views about the state of the industry, the data shows that we still have a healthy European car market – although there are many challenges heading its way, of course,” added Munoz.
September was also a significant month for battery electric vehicles, as registrations went up by 119% to 40,700 units for the entire continent. Tesla recorded 19,500 registrations and controlled nearly half of the BEV market thanks to the success of the Model 3 – which became the best-selling electric vehicle and the 11th best-selling vehicle overall.
This was the first time in history that an electric car came so close to cracking Europe’s top 10 model sales rankings.
As for the overall most successful nameplates, the VW Golf led the group with 32,398 units, followed by the Opel/Vauxhall Corsa with 28,453 units and the Renault Clio with 24,453 units. The only premium model in the top 10 was the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, claiming fourth place with 22,540 units.
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