The Dacia Sandero was the best-selling car in Europe by a significant margin last year, according to figures released by industry analyst Jato Dynamics.
A total of 268,101 examples of the value-focused supermini were registered in Europe (including the UK) last year, beating the second-placed Renault Clio by more than 50,000 units.
The Volkswagen Golf rounded out the podium with 215,715 sales.
Sales of 2023’s most popular car, the Tesla Model Y, dropped by 17% to 209,214. That was still enough to secure its place as Europe’s most popular electric car, however.
SUVs remained the most popular type of car in Europe last year, accounting for a record 54% of all sales (so 6.92 million cars), up 4% compared with 2023. Indeed, of the 50 best-selling models, 27 were SUVs.
Supermini sales grew by 1.3% to 2.0m (or 15.5% of the market), while the traditional C-segment (hatchbacks) and D-segment (saloons) dropped by 1.3% and 3.3% respectively.
EVs’ share of the market shrunk from 15.7% in 2023 to 15.4% last year, while petrol models rose from 47.9% to 48.4%.
Jato attributed EVs’ slump to the withdrawal of incentives, as well as their high average price.
It expects EV sales to rebound in 2025, though, as new, more affordable models (such as the Renault 5 and Fiat Grande Panda) come to market.
Diesel cars' protracted slump in share continued, dropping 1.7% year on year to 14.3%.
Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids dropped from 7.7% of the market to 7.3% and hybrids grew from 9.9% of the market to 11.8%.
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Yeah, but not but, people only want to buy SUVs. (/s)
Goes to show you that a lot of people want a truly affordable car, and not the car magazine definition of the word "affordable".
I was a life long car enthusiast, but my interest has diminished in recent times because I don't want to spend a huge fortune on a car that's a disappointing compromise rather than what I actually want. And even though I could stretch myself to afford what I want, the cost of such a car is impossible to justify and I resent paying that much; I'd rather put the money towards a house extension or even a bigger house.
All this "moving upmarket" rubbish hasn't really played out well for the now troubled mainstream manufacturers, then China will wipe out the so-called "prestige" makes over time.
I find the whole situation very sad, but well done to Dacia for truly providing something for the masses.
Well, to be fair, the Sandero in here is now at 13.5K€ minimum, used to be 8.5K€ not very long ago.Cheap cars are dying because the price shift wasn't proportional to their price, that's why 20/30K€ cars make more sense now: you have to spend a lot of money anyway, you don't want the bare minimum.
Produce a reasonable car at a reasonable price, and reasonable people will buy it. Most manufacturers now seem to be adding unwanted features and asking too much money.