EU's best-selling car brands: new registrations December 2020-2021

Volkswagen was the best-selling car brand in December 2021, based on new registrations in the European Union. Volkswagen's car sales came to around 81,775 units that month, a decline of almost 39.5 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.

Sales lost during pandemic

In September 2021, customers in the 27 European Union member states bought some 215,000 fewer vehicles than during the same month two years earlier. Volkswagen Group's namesake brand reported lost monthly sales of almost 24,000 units. While Kia, Hyundai, and Dacia managed to sell more cars in September 2021 than in 2019, Mercedes suffered the largest decline: Mercedes sales dipped by almost 44 percent between September 2019 and 2021.