European car market in November: Renault Clio took the lead, VW Golf — 35th place!
The global shortage of microchips coupled with the current COVID-19 pandemic continues to haunt the European market and surprises with an unexpected hit on the bestseller list.
The pandemic has led to a global shortage of microchips and will not recede at all: new strains of coronavirus are overwhelming the authorities and threatening a full-blown governance crisis, and the automotive market is experiencing an unprecedented decline in this century – supply lagging far behind demand, waiting times for some popular models have increased to two years!
In this context, the monthly sales statistics published by the British analytical agency JATO Dynamics show great volatility. In November there was another change of leader: the October bestseller Peugeot 2008 was replaced by Renault Clio – 16,353 units were sold. In September, we recall that the first place was taken by the American electric sedan Tesla Model 3, in August-July – the budget sedan Dacia Sandero.
Volkswagen golf
But what about the VW Golf, which has held the lead for decades? At the end of the year, it will likely still be in the lead thanks to a good lead in the first half of 2021, but it was in November that the Golf dropped to 35th in the sales rankings with 6,755 units sold.
Meanwhile, the VW T-Roc crossover, not much different from the Golf in terms of technology and equipment, took the fifth place in the rating (15,234 units sold), confirming the stereotype common this year in the German media that the T-Roc is the new golf. That is, many experts are inclined to believe that the drawdown of Golf in statistics is not only and not so much a consequence of the deficit, but rather a consequence of changes in the interests and habits of consumers. Whether this is true or not will become clear next year, when the shortage of microchips will almost certainly disappear (unlike the coronavirus).
Hyundai Tucson
We note the appearance in the top ten of the Korean crossover Hyundai Tucson, which managed to overtake the very famous Dacia Duster among Europeans: 12,408 units were sold. (+ 104%) and 12,351 units. (+ 3%) respectively.
The Tesla Model 3 is the leader in electric vehicles with 10,739 units sold in November, up 119% from a year ago! The VW ID.3 sedan, on which the German brand made a big bet, fell by 43% to 4707 units. – It is unlikely that such a collapse can be explained only by the lack of components.
Tesla model 3
In the plug-in hybrid segment, the Peugeot 3008 was the leader in November with 3,855 units sold, and the total share of plug-in models (electric and plug-in hybrid) in the last autumn month accounted for 26% of the total sales volume of the entire European new passenger car market. The share of diesel vehicles is only 18%.
In general, the market in November this year fell by 18% compared to November 2020, to 855,000 cars. The decrease compared to generic November 2019 was 29%.
Now we are waiting for the results of the year, which, due to the complexity of the calculation, will appear around the beginning of February – stay tuned at auto.inform.com.de.
