The Tesla Model Y is the best-selling vehicle in Europe in 2023.

Discover over 50 years of European Historical Data here.

Preliminary data from ACEA shows a European market (EU+EFTA+UK) up a robust 13.7% or 1.5 million sales to 12,847,481. BEV sales climb 28.2% to 2,019,041, PHEVs are down -1.2% to 989,937, HEV up 28.3% to 3,397,339, petrol up 10.7% to 4,586,327 and diesel off -6.4% to 1,533,762. The biggest markets for BEVs are Germany at 524,219 sales (+11.4%), France at 298,219 (+47%), Netherlands at 113,981 (+55.6%), Sweden at 112,208 (+18.1%) and Norway at 104,587 (-24.4%). Among the Top 5 markets, Italy (+18.9%) performs best above the UK (+17.9%), Spain (+16.7%), France (+16.1%) and Germany (+7.3%). Bulgaria (+31.5%), Croatia (+31.3%), Belgium (+30.1%), Greece (+27.7%) and Portugal (+26.9%) are the best performing markets overall, while at the other end of the scale Norway (-27.2%), Hungary (-3.4%) and Sweden (+0.6%) fare worst.

In the groups ranking, the VW Group (+18.5%) beats the market to 3.3 million sales from 2.8 million a year ago while Stellantis (+3.7%) is shy in 2nd place. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (+16.3%) is strong in third place above Hyundai-Kia (+4.3%), the BMW Group (+11.6%) and Toyota Group (+10.2%) all underperforming as does Mercedes (+8.3%) below. Brand-wise, Volkswagen (+12.2%) leads the way with 1.36 million sales with Toyota (+8%) in 2nd place like last year. Audi (+19.2%) surges three spots on 2022 to land on the third step of the podium, knocking BMW (+12.6%) and Mercedes (+7.5%) down to #4 and #5 respectively. Renault (+16.8%) is up one rank to #6 and Skoda (+26.3%) up two to #7 (but ranked #5 at end November). Peugeot (+3.3%) freefalls three spots to #8 with Kia (+5.4%) and Dacia (+17.1%) rounding out the Top 10. Below, Tesla (+56.9%), MG (+102.7%), Cupra (+40.9%) and Suzuki (+41.6%) stand out.

The big event this year is the pole position of the Tesla Model Y in the models charts, a historic event which marks the first time a BEV ranks #1, the first time a non-European model is #1 in Europe and the first time an SUV places first. We will provide more information on the European models ranking when complete data is shared with us which should be in early February.

Previous year: Europe 2022: Peugeot 208 ends VW Golf’s 14-year domination, market down -4.1%

Two years ago: Europe 2021: Toyota (+10.2%), Hyundai (+21.6%) and Kia (+20.6%) can’t help market down -1.5%

Full December 2023 Top 10 groups and Top 25 brands below.

Full Year 2023 Top 10 groups and Top 25 brands vs. Full Year 2022 figures below.