The European passenger car market is back into negative territory in October after a brief and small increase in September. As showrooms across Europe are closing again due to second wave lockdowns, new car deliveries hit another road bump. A 7.5% decrease to 1.13 million deliveries bring the year-to-date figure to 9.78 million, down 25.9%. Among the five major EU markets, deliveries fell markedly in Spain (-21%) while more moderate decreases were observed in France (-9.5%) and Germany (-3.6%). In the UK and Italy, on the other hand, demand remained almost unchanged at -1.6% and -0.2% respectively.
Sales of car models (hatchback, sedan, stationwagon, coupe and convertible) are down 8.4% to 53.5% share. Crossover and SUV sales are down 7.5% to 40.3% share, and MPV sales are down 15.2% to 6.2% share. Within these figures, EVs and PHEVs are up 195% to around 147,000 registrations in October. EVs were up 192% to over 73,000 deliveries and PHEVs were up 198% to hit a new volume record at over 73,000 deliveries as well. The share of plug-in cars stood at 13% in September (6.5% for pure EVs alone). The year-to-date share of EVs and PHEVs now stands at 9.5% (5.1% for EVs).
October 2020 Manufacturers
After scoring big in September, Volkswagen Group trails the market with an 8.1% loss, while PSA beats the market for the first time this year at -5.8%. Renault-Nissan is down 9%, a similar decline as Hyundai-Kia in 5th place, who are outsold this month by Daimler AG, down 6.1%. BMW has dropped behind the South-Koreans by just 500 sales and is the second biggest loser in the top-10 with a loss of 10.6%. Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles is the best performer in the top-10 and one of only two manufacturers to increase their sales on October 2019. The Italian-Americans manage to outsell Toyota Motor Company. Ford Motor is the biggest loser at -23.3% the Americans fall to 9th place. Geely Group gains 5.5% and Suzuki gains 7.5% to leapfrog Mazda and Tata Motors, both of which are in great difficulty this month with large double digit declines. Honda does slightly worse than the overall market which is an improvement earlier this year, while Subaru continues to lose whatever market share it still has in Europe. SAIC Motor triples its sales while Tesla is still harmed by earlier production interruptions in California. A ship with Chinese-made Model 3’s will arrive in Europe before the end of the year, which could give them an end-of-year rally.
| Group | Oct-20 | Oct-19 | change | YTD 2020 | YTD 2019 | change | |
| 1 | Volkswagen Group | 282.226 | 307.166 | -8,1% | 2.448.908 | 3.223.392 | -24,0% |
| 2 | PSA | 173.256 | 183.859 | -5,8% | 1.420.309 | 2.123.469 | -33,1% |
| 3 | Renault-Nissan | 149.485 | 164.200 | -9,0% | 1.314.100 | 1.834.368 | -28,4% |
| 4 | Daimler AG | 80.146 | 85.388 | -6,1% | 607.941 | 841.211 | -27,7% |
| 5 | Hyundai-Kia | 78.334 | 86.028 | -8,9% | 700.083 | 880.087 | -20,5% |
| 6 | BMW AG | 77.812 | 87.074 | -10,6% | 681.114 | 858.395 | -20,7% |
| 7 | Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles | 69.330 | 65.679 | 5,6% | 551.379 | 786.934 | -29,9% |
| 8 | Toyota Motor | 62.857 | 66.227 | -5,1% | 560.164 | 668.272 | -16,2% |
| 9 | Ford Motor Comp. | 61.325 | 79.962 | -23,3% | 578.494 | 834.564 | -30,7% |
| 10 | Geely Group | 29.401 | 27.856 | 5,5% | 235.123 | 277.244 | -15,2% |
| 11 | Suzuki | 17.965 | 16.718 | 7,5% | 140.697 | 218.607 | -35,6% |
| 12 | Mazda | 14.384 | 21.629 | -33,5% | 119.659 | 200.767 | -40,4% |
| 13 | Tata Motors | 12.968 | 17.223 | -24,7% | 131.534 | 192.221 | -31,6% |
| 14 | Honda | 7.544 | 8.186 | -7,8% | 67.596 | 104.536 | -35,3% |
| 15 | SAIC | 2.581 | 841 | 206,9% | 18.949 | 10.201 | 85,8% |
| 16 | Subaru Corp. | 1.875 | 2.182 | -14,1% | 15.287 | 23.876 | -36,0% |
| 17 | Tesla Motors | 1.468 | 2.512 | -41,6% | 66.058 | 78.501 | -15,9% |
| 18 | Mahindra & Mahindra | 1.024 | 925 | 10,7% | 9.355 | 11.756 | -20,4% |
| 19 | Aston Martin | 135 | 131 | 3,1% | 1.293 | 2.098 | -38,4% |
| 20 | General Motors | 60 | 95 | -36,8% | 256 | 2.866 | -91,1% |
October 2020 Brands
In the brands ranking, Volkswagen loses market 1.3 percentage points of market share and is the second-biggest loser in the top-20 after Ford. Renault, Peugeot and Mercedes-Benz all gain share despite small declines in sales, but Ford falls to 5th place, just ahead of Audi and BMW. Audi is the big winner in the top-30 with sales up 16.4% on last year, moving ahead of its Munich rival. Fiat is the only other brand in the top-15 with more deliveries in October 2020 than in 2019, but still trails Skoda and Toyota by 10,000 sales as both those brands beat the market with small declines. As already mentioned last month, the worst is over for Opel/Vauxhall and it proves that with a 0.5% loss, although it’s still only in 11th place just ahead of stablemate Citroën which loses nearly 12%.
Kia and Dacia slightly outperform the marke and move past Hyundai which is down 12.8%. Volvo is just about stable while Nissan continues to underperform, and probably will do so until the arrival of the new generation Qashqai. Suzuki moves ahead of Mini and Mazda can’t seem to be able to turn its fate around this year. Jeep moves back ahead of Land Rover, Honda outsells Mitsubishi for the second consecutive month and the second time this year. Porsche has enjoyed a few good months, but now is down by double digits for the second month in a row. Smart is the biggest loser in the top-40 with sales down by half. Among smaller brands, DR Motor (+251.9%) and Mahindra (+189.4%) enjoy high growth, while Cadillac is up 250% to 35 sales, possibly helped by the arrival of the XT4 in Europe.
| Brand | Oct-20 | Oct-19 | change | 2020 share | YTD rank | 2020 | 2019 | change | |
| 1 | Volkswagen | 121.778 | 148.454 | -18,0% | 10,8% | 1 | 1.064.834 | 1.206.939 | -11,8% |
| 2 | Renault | 79.151 | 81.469 | -2,8% | 7,0% | 2 | 663.693 | 881.219 | -24,7% |
| 3 | Peugeot | 77.090 | 79.968 | -3,6% | 6,9% | 3 | 612.966 | 819.954 | -25,2% |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz | 76.390 | 77.836 | -1,9% | 6,8% | 4 | 589.821 | 754.869 | -21,9% |
| 5 | Ford | 61.322 | 79.961 | -23,3% | 5,5% | 5 | 578.489 | 834.560 | -30,7% |
| 6 | Audi | 60.731 | 52.168 | 16,4% | 5,4% | 9 | 493.126 | 628.526 | -21,5% |
| 7 | BMW | 60.575 | 69.692 | -13,1% | 5,4% | 6 | 539.725 | 678.413 | -20,4% |
| 8 | Skoda | 59.489 | 60.755 | -2,1% | 5,3% | 8 | 521.161 | 508.559 | 2,5% |
| 9 | Toyota | 58.798 | 61.694 | -4,7% | 5,2% | 7 | 521.672 | 621.942 | -16,1% |
| 10 | Fiat | 48.223 | 44.616 | 8,1% | 4,3% | 10 | 385.700 | 540.038 | -28,6% |
| 11 | Opel/Vauxhall | 47.911 | 48.175 | -0,5% | 4,3% | 16 | 268.502 | 719.514 | -62,7% |
| 12 | Citroën | 44.417 | 50.438 | -11,9% | 3,9% | 15 | 284.784 | 541.236 | -47,4% |
| 13 | Kia | 39.649 | 41.680 | -4,9% | 3,5% | 11 | 356.574 | 420.190 | -15,1% |
| 14 | Dacia | 38.856 | 41.859 | -7,2% | 3,5% | 13 | 322.825 | 483.424 | -33,2% |
| 15 | Hyundai | 38.685 | 44.348 | -12,8% | 3,4% | 12 | 343.509 | 459.897 | -25,3% |
| 16 | Seat | 33.158 | 36.725 | -9,7% | 2,9% | 14 | 307.530 | 429.315 | -28,4% |
| 17 | Volvo | 27.914 | 27.807 | 0,4% | 2,5% | 18 | 229.924 | 276.681 | -16,9% |
| 18 | Nissan | 24.265 | 28.625 | -15,2% | 2,2% | 17 | 235.576 | 218.125 | 8,0% |
| 19 | Suzuki | 17.965 | 16.718 | 7,5% | 1,6% | 20 | 140.697 | 218.607 | -35,6% |
| 20 | Mini | 17.195 | 17.312 | -0,7% | 1,5% | 19 | 140.901 | 179.305 | -21,4% |
| 21 | Mazda | 14.384 | 21.629 | -33,5% | 1,3% | 21 | 119.659 | 200.767 | -40,4% |
| 22 | Jeep | 12.107 | 11.074 | 9,3% | 1,1% | 22 | 95.520 | 140.000 | -31,8% |
| 23 | Land Rover | 9.655 | 11.830 | -18,4% | 0,9% | 23 | 93.361 | 125.313 | -25,5% |
| 24 | Honda | 7.544 | 8.186 | -7,8% | 0,7% | 25 | 67.596 | 104.536 | -35,3% |
| 25 | Mitsubishi | 7.088 | 11.679 | -39,3% | 0,6% | 24 | 88.783 | 124.205 | -28,5% |
| 26 | Porsche | 6.594 | 8.707 | -24,3% | 0,6% | 27 | 57.641 | 62.638 | -8,0% |
| 27 | Lancia | 4.729 | 4.863 | -2,8% | 0,4% | 31 | 34.109 | 50.572 | -32,6% |
| 28 | Lexus | 4.059 | 4.533 | -10,5% | 0,4% | 28 | 38.492 | 46.330 | -16,9% |
| 29 | DS | 3.838 | 5.278 | -27,3% | 0,3% | 30 | 34.798 | 42.765 | -18,6% |
| 30 | Smart | 3.756 | 7.552 | -50,3% | 0,3% | 34 | 18.120 | 86.342 | -79,0% |
| 31 | Alfa Romeo | 3.444 | 4.235 | -18,7% | 0,3% | 32 | 27.880 | 46.036 | -39,4% |
| 32 | Jaguar | 3.313 | 5.393 | -38,6% | 0,3% | 29 | 38.173 | 66.908 | -42,9% |
| 33 | SAIC MG | 2.581 | 841 | 206,9% | 0,2% | 33 | 18.949 | 10.201 | 85,8% |
| 34 | Subaru | 1.875 | 2.182 | -14,1% | 0,2% | 35 | 15.287 | 23.876 | -36,0% |
| 35 | Tesla | 1.468 | 2.512 | -41,6% | 0,1% | 26 | 66.058 | 78.501 | -15,9% |
| 36 | Polestar | 1.417 | #DIV/0! | 0,1% | 37 | 4.702 | 0 | #DIV/0! | |
| 37 | SSangYong | 888 | 878 | 1,1% | 0,1% | 36 | 8.303 | 10.831 | -23,3% |
| 38 | DR Motor | 475 | 135 | 251,9% | 0,0% | 40 | 2.636 | 3.129 | -15,8% |
| 39 | Ferrari | 304 | 300 | 1,3% | 0,0% | 38 | 2.930 | 3.307 | -11,4% |
| 40 | Maserati | 299 | 408 | -26,7% | 0,0% | 39 | 2.647 | 4.873 | -45,7% |
| 41 | Bentley | 253 | 229 | 10,5% | 0,0% | 41 | 2.496 | 2.766 | -9,8% |
| 42 | Lamborghini | 189 | 117 | 61,5% | 0,0% | 43 | 1.684 | 1.944 | -13,4% |
| 43 | Mahindra | 136 | 47 | 189,4% | 0,0% | 45 | 1.052 | 925 | 13,7% |
| 44 | Aston Martin | 135 | 131 | 3,1% | 0,0% | 44 | 1.293 | 2.098 | -38,4% |
| 45 | Dodge | 129 | 112 | 15,2% | 0,0% | 47 | 889 | 1.089 | -18,4% |
| 46 | Alpine | 82 | 167 | -50,9% | 0,0% | 46 | 956 | 3.716 | -74,3% |
| 47 | Lotus | 69 | 43 | 60,5% | 0,0% | 48 | 798 | 480 | 66,3% |
| 48 | Lada | 43 | 278 | -84,5% | 0,0% | 42 | 1.944 | 4.612 | -57,8% |
| 49 | Rolls Royce | 42 | 70 | -40,0% | 0,0% | 49 | 488 | 677 | -27,9% |
| 50 | Cadillac | 35 | 10 | 250,0% | 0,0% | 52 | 76 | 595 | -87,2% |
| 51 | Chevrolet | 24 | 83 | -71,1% | 0,0% | 51 | 174 | 2.261 | -92,3% |
| 52 | Great Wall | 18 | 17 | 5,9% | 0,0% | 50 | 304 | 66 | 360,6% |
| 53 | Chrysler | 6 | 5 | 20,0% | 0,0% | 53 | 71 | 101 | -29,7% |
| 54 | Geely | 1 | 6 | -83,3% | 0,0% | 54 | 68 | 83 | -18,1% |
European car sales statistics are from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. They exclude vehicles registered as commercial vehicles. Source: ANDC, JATO Dynamics