A Look At Europe's Top Selling Brands By Country

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

From the Twitter account of Bob Flavin comes this map of Europe, overlayed with each country’s best-selling auto brand.

Volkswagen, along with Skoda (and to a lesser extent, SEAT and Audi) are far and away the dominant force in Europe, with Fiat, Renault (and Dacia) trailing behind.

Regionally, Audi is popular in wealthy enclaves like Monaco, while Skoda dominates in Central Europe. Dacia is abundant in developing countries as diverse as Romania, Moldova, Morocco and Algeria while Fiat is tops not just in Italy, but Turkey and Serbia as well – countries where Fiat builds vehicles locally.

Popular brands in North America, like Ford, Toyota and Honda are much smaller players in the continent. While the Fiesta, Focus and other nameplates enjoy widespread success throughout Europe, Toyota and Honda are much smaller players. And most tellingly, none of the PSA nameplates (Peugeot and Citroen) are present. Or Hyundai/Kia, for that matter.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

More by Derek Kreindler

Comments
Join the conversation
6 of 30 comments
  • Brock_Landers Brock_Landers on Sep 03, 2014

    The map is not correct. No 1 in Estonia is Toyota, has been 10 years, Honda is fifth or sixth far behind. In Lithuania Fiat is non-existent player, vw is no 1 or toyota its a close race. In Latvia its also a close race with Toyota and VW. Baltics combined Toyota is no1. In Finland Toyota has been No1 for decades, now its a very close race with VW for last couple of years.

    • Perc Perc on Sep 03, 2014

      > In Finland Toyota has been No1 for decades, now its a very close race with VW for last couple of years. Toyota's Hiace was always hugely popular, with the VW Transporter in second place. Toyota probably lost a ton of sales to VW when the Hiace went out of production. The Hiace was hugely popular here for decades, but pretty much nobody else bought it (apart from the Norwegians) so Toyota never replaced it when the plug was pulled on the old one after a decade and a half. The Hiace replacement is called ProAce and is made by Sevel, the French/Italian company that has been churning out various vans for FIAT and PSA since the 80's. It doesn't seem to be anywhere near as popular as its predecessor.

  • JD321 JD321 on Sep 03, 2014

    Can't believe the Brits go for Ford...And those Estonians are just weird.

    • Inside Looking Out Inside Looking Out on Sep 03, 2014

      Where do you think should they go? If you ever read reviews about Ford they like how they drive and feel e.g. Mondeo, Fiesta and Focus, Americans care only about reliability and like appliances. And Ford did not provide European quality in US anyway. Ford sounds like an English word or last name, unlike VW. European Ford originally started in England.

  • Brock_Landers Brock_Landers on Sep 03, 2014

    http://bestsellingcarsblog.com/ PS! Although Honda is in fifth or sixth place in Estonia, it sells quite well, but only on model - CRV. CRV has been the most sold model in Estonia after the launch of new generation. PPS! I was wrong about Lithuania and Fiat. But it must be some kind of anomaly, re-export or something. Because their model line-up is tiny compared to the competition. Yes, I was correct: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/good_for_business/?doc=87460 Quote: Successful results demonstrated by Fiat 500 not only ensured the first place for the brand in the market but also had a considerable effect on market growth. It should be mentioned that often most new cars are deregistered and sold abroad. By the end of January almost all Suzuki SX4 vehicles were deregistered. Thus, the two most sold models became leaders due to the demand of re-export.

  • Stanczyk Stanczyk on Sep 18, 2014

    I would rather say : what 'corporations buy for their 'fleets' for their managers , salesman etc.... Private people in europe has no money to buy a new car (..and they are not so stupid like debt-loving americans .. :)

Next