2021 Europe Automotive Sales by Automaker – The Best-Selling Automotive Manufacturers By Sales Volume
Sales of passenger cars in 2021 dropped to the lowest annual level since 1993, at 11.76 million, down 1.6% on 2020. This makes it the second consecutive year below 12 million, after peaking at 15.66 million in 2019. If 2020 sales were affected by lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 the challenges to the industry were exacerbated by distruptions in the supply chain and a worldwide shortages in semiconductors. Some brands were able to weather this storm better than others thanks to strategic partnerships with suppliers of microchips. The industry is expected to suffer from these supply shortages until the second half of 2022 so we expect European sales to have bottomed out and predict a recovery to start this year.
Among the five major markets, only Germany posted a decline (-10.5%), while Italy (+5.5%), UK and Spain (both +1.0%) and France (+0.5%) shows modest growth figures. Biggest gainers are Iceland (+35.8%), Norway and Croatia (both +24.7%) and Greece (+24.6%), while the biggest losers are Lithuania (-22%), Belgium (-11.2%), Germany and Netherlands (-9.2%).
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