Belgian car market grows further

According to the data of the car and two-wheeler federation, Febiac, the new car market in Belgium and Luxembourg rose again by 26,6% in October compared to the year before. The cumulative result is 413 308 new cars for the first ten months (+32,5%); the expectation is to land at around 475 000 new registrations for 2023.

The same tendency is true for light commercial vehicles (LCV). They sold 28,5% more than one year ago in October and saw a cumulative plus of 23,5% for the first ten months. Heavier transport vehicles saw a mixed month in October (+3,4% under 16 tons, -7% over 16 tons), but the cumulative tendency stays largely positive with +31,2% and +25,4%, respectively.

Two-wheelers, finally, had a sales rise of +24,9% in October, resulting in a cumulative progress of 5% for the first ten months.

By brand

Although Audi was the biggest grower in the top five in October, realizing +57,3% in sales, BMW stayed at the number one position with 25,7% more sales than in October 2022. The third position is for Volkswagen (+16,1%, closely followed by Mercedes (+31,3%).

Peugeot stays in the top five but falls back (-13,7%) and feels the breath of Renault (+41,5%) in its neck. Seventh is Skoda, which sold 49,6% more, followed by Toyota (+4,5%). Also, a good performance from Volvo (+47,2%), which took the ninth place just before Dacia (10th, +23,3%).

Searching for other (big) winners, we can’t ignore Tesla, of course (15th, +541,8% compared to October last year), but there are also good results for Nissan (17th, +69,9%), Mazda (18th, +80,6%), and the inevitable Cupra (19th, before Seat!, 291,2%).

Other remarkable risers are Porsche (24th, +122,5%), Land Rover (25th, +91,5%), MG (26th, +465%!), Jeep (27th, +401,7%), Honda (30th, +83,5%), and Lexus (31st, +122,22%).

There are some other remarkable growers but in the low absolute figures. Lotus sold 66 cars in October 2023 instead of… 3 in 2022 (+2 100%), BYD sold 64 instead of 6 (+966,7%), and Smart sold 21 cars instead of 4 (+425%). Ferrari also more than doubled its sales (13 instead of 6), and Alpine quadrupled its sales (from 3 to 12).

Despite the rising market, there were some losers, too. We already mentioned Peugeot, but there also was Opel (16th, -31,5%), Fiat (21st, -29,2%), and DS (29th, -21,1%). As Citroën didn’t do well either (12th, -1,6%), October was not a good month for Stellantis, despite Jeep and Alfa Romeo (32nd, +25,3%).

After ten months

Looking briefly at the cumulative results, we see BMW staying easily on top of the market for the first ten months, selling 32,5% more cars and having a market share of 10,3%. Volkswagen is second with a 9,5% share, followed by Mercedes (7,4%), Audi (7,2%), and Peugeot (6,4%).

Here also, Renault is coming closer with 5,3%, followed by Toyota (4,9%), Volvo (4,4%), Dacia (4,3%) and Kia (4%). The usual suspects perform remarkable results, Tesla raising its market share from 1 to 3,2% (15th place), Cupra (from 0,4% to 1%, 23rd), and MG (from 0,2% to O,7%, 25th). In the high-end sports and luxury market, Lotus confirmed its latest success, selling 143 cars in ten months instead of 20 last year.