The MG ZS is the biggest surprise of the year in Spain.
After a December volume up 10.6% to 81,772, the Spanish new car market soars 16.7% year-on-year in 2023 to 949,359 units. Private sales are up 14.5% to 419,528, company sales gain 13.1% to 393,815. It’s sales to rental companies that pull the market to this level at +37.5% to 136,016. Strikingly, the Top 4 brands all trail the market. Toyota (+8.7%) stays on top at 8.4% share above Kia (+4.6%) at 7% and Volkswagen (+8.5%) bypassing Hyundai (-1.1%) to round out the podium. Seat (+19.1%) rallies back up one spot to #5 ahead of Peugeot (+6.9%). Dacia (+29.6%), Renault (+23.4%) and Mercedes (+17.8%) all beat the market in the remainder of the Top 10 whereas Citroen (-2.2%) underperforms. MG (+320.9%) advances eight ranks to #15 with 3.1% share vs. just 0.8% a year ago.
In the models ranking, the Dacia Sandero (+34.5%) scores its 2nd ever win after 2019 with a comfortable margin over the #2, the Seat Arona (+23.9%) also up 1 spot on last year. The Sandero led the market 7 times this year. The Toyota Corolla (+16.7%) is also up one rank to #3 but the best performance of the year comes in 4th place: the MG ZS (+263.2%) is up no less than 46 spots on 2022 to end the year with 2.1% share, just 27 sales off a podium finish. Most impressively, the ZS topped the monthly charts this year: in August, September and December. The Peugeot 2008 (+24.5%) outrace the market to land at #5 ahead of last year’s leader the Hyundai Tucson (-13.1%) enduring the only year-on-year loss in the Top 16. The Kia Sportage (+20.3%) is also strong just as the Seat Ibiza (+47.8%) is back from hell (#22 in 2022) inside the Top 10 at #10. The Renault Clio (+55.6%) and Nissan Qashqai (+54.3%) also impress below.
Previous year: Spain 2022: Toyota, Hyundai Tucson score first wins in weakest market in 9 years
Two years ago: Spain 2021: Seat Arona and Hyundai Tucson top market edging up 1%
Full December 2023 Top 55 All brands and Top 306 All models below.
Full Year 2023 Top 72 All brands and Top 400 All models vs. Full Year 2022 data below.
