The humble Dacia Sandero beats the ever-popular Golf at the top of the European sales chart.
Good news! The Dacia Sandero has claimed the top spot as Europe’s best selling car in July 2021. With a total of 20,446 units shifted in the 7th month of this year, this humble hatchback from the Renault-owned Romanian marque has also incidentally managed the significant achievement of toppling the ever-popular Volkswagen Golf that usually tops the sales chart over in the old continent, by a rather wide margin of 1,021 cars to boot.
Now delving deeper into the details with regards to the Sandero’s recent sales success, the recent revision of this compact hatchback from Dacia is perhaps partly responsible for its reasonable 6% increase in units delivered last month as compared to the same time the year prior. Though perhaps the larger reason as to why it surged to the top of the European sales chart was more to do with the fact that sales of the Golf have plummeted by a staggering 37% from its July 2020 figures.
Volkswagen has unfortunately yet to comment on exactly why Golf sales have taken such a beating in recent time, but it is highly likely that the ongoing semiconductor shortage currently plaguing the auto industry may at least be somewhat to blame for this dip in deliveries. It is nevertheless not really time for the German auto giant to panic just yet, as it still has three other models occupying positions in the top 10 places of the European sales chart last month, with the Polo, T-Roc, and T-Cross coming home in 4th, 5th and 7th respectively.
Discussing a bit further on the top 10 best-selling cars of the old continent in July too, the Toyota Yaris continues to maintain a strong sales position over there, with the 18,858 units sold securing it a third place finish last month. As for the biggest gainers and losers meanwhile, the Hyundai Tucson soars to 6th place on the list with the recent arrival of an all-new iteration boosting year-on-year sales by a whopping 39%, whereas the Peugeot 2008 narrowly manages to just stay within the top 10 even after sales last month dropped by 34% from the same time the year prior.
The Peugeot 2008 though isn’t the only casualty in the sales chart this time round, as the entire European new car market fell by 24% in July 2021 from the month before. Registrations across the 26 markets in Europe only totalled 967,830 last month, which sadly had put an end to the four prior months of growth enjoyed over there.
Despite new car sales decreasing overall last month however, sales of electrified cars — plug-in hybrids and full EVs — have amazingly experienced their best July to date. Combined sales of BEV and PHEV models of 160,646 units accounted for 17% of all car sales in Europe last month, with the Volkswagen ID.3 and Ford Kuga topping those respective charts.
