New car registrations in Europe 2023: These were the most successful brands

In 2023 as a whole, 12,847,481 cars were sold in Europe (EU+UK+EFTA), a figure that represents growth of 13.7% compared to 11,294,502 in 2022. December 2023, on the other hand, with a total of 1,048,727 registered vehicles (-3.8%), is the first month of decline in the statistics after sixteen consecutive months of growth for Europe.

Growth drivers for the year as a whole among the most important markets were Italy (+18.9%), the United Kingdom (+17.9%), Spain (+16.7%) and France (+16.1%), while Germany remained at a more modest +7.3%.

At continental level, Acea recorded the strongest growth in some smaller markets such as Bulgaria and Croatia ( +31.5% and +31.3% respectively), but also in Belgium (+30.1%), Greece (+27.7%), Portugal (+26.9%) and Cyprus (+26.8%). Only Norway (-27.2%) and Hungary (-3.4%) saw a decline .

Electric cars overtake diesel drives

In 2023, electric cars will reach a market share of 15.7% (in 2022 it was 13.9%) and overtake diesel-powered vehicles for the first time, which are at 11.9% (last year it was 14.5%). This makes the electric car the third-largest source of propulsion in Europe - after petrol and hybrids.

Tesla Model 3 an einer Ladesäule

A look at the fuel mix in 2023 shows that petrol cars will increase slightly in absolute terms, but their market share will fall from 36.6% in 2022 to 35.7% last year, while mild and full hybrids, which are continuing their growth trajectory, will narrow the gap to 26.4% (2022: 23.4%).

Market share by fuel type in 2023:

• Petrol: 35.7%
• Hybrid (MHEV+HEV): 26.4%
• Electric (BEV): 15.7%
• Diesel: 11.9%
• Plug-in hybrid (PHEV): 7.7%
• Other (LPG, methane, ethanol, hydrogen): 2.5%

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Who is rising and who is falling

The brand with the strongest growth in 2023 is Tesla with a remarkable increase of 56.9%, closely followed by Lexus (+53.6%), Alfa Romeo (+52.1%), Suzuki (+41.6%) and Cupra (+40.9%).

Tesla Model Y

Lexus NX

Alfa Romeo Tonale

Smart (+30.8%), Mazda (+30.2%), Land Rover (+27.1%) and Skoda (+26.3%) also performed well.

On the other hand, Mitsubishi (-25.1%), Honda (-9.8%), Fiat (-3.4%), DS (-3.1%), Citroën (-1.5%) and Jaguar (-0.4%) are in decline.

The overview for 2023

Ranking by group

If we instead look at the market shares by group in 2023, we see that Volkswagen remains at the top with 25.9% of European registrations , followed by Stellantis (16.6%), the Renault Group (9.7%), the Hyundai Group (8.6%) and the BMW Group with 7.1%. This is followed by the Toyota Group (6.9%), Mercedes-Benz (5.5%), Ford (4.0%) and Tesla (2.9%).

1. Volkswagen: 3,324,705
2. Stellantis: 2,128,625
3. Renault: 1,242,293
4. Hyundai Group: 1,106,467
5. BMW: 913,955
6. Toyota: 888,770
7. Mercedes-Benz: 710,433
8. Ford: 518,371
9. Tesla: 366,326

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