Belux car registrations down 13.5% in March

According to the data provided by the federal government service Mobility & Transport and the car manufacturers federation Febiac, 44,751 cars were registered in March 2024, 13.5% less than in the same month last year.

Febiac explains this regress by saying that March 2024 counted two working days less than March 2023, but that can’t be the whole explanation. We will see in April, but there’s a possibility that the market is slowing down a little bit, although the first quarter was still the best since the pandemic (+2.8% compared to Q1 2023).

Light commercial vehicles (LCVs) follow the same curve, with -14.4% for March and +1.8% for Q1 2024. Heavier trucks are still doing well: +0.9% in March and +38.2% in Q1 for those weighing less than 16 tons, -3.6% in March, and +6.4% in Q1 for the heavier ones.

Spring is in the air for two-wheelers, but the 2.9% progress in March is fairly modest compared to the +5.9% for the whole first quarter of the year. Nevertheless, it has also been the best result since 2019.

By brand

Also, in March, BMW stayed number one in the Belux market, although it registered a sales loss of 17.2%. Volkswagen stays second, with a minor regress (-1.6%), while daughter Audi (third) even sees a tiny increase in sales in March (+0.2%).

Mercedes stays in fourth place despite an 8.0% regress, but the usual number five, Peugeot, stumbles down to 15th place due to a whopping 65.8% regress in registrations last month. So, fifth place has been taken by a newcomer, Tesla, which increased its sales by 2.5% compared to an already very good March 2023.

Volvo (6th), with a sales increase of 29.3%, Toyota (8th, +19.4%), Kia (10th, +14.3%), and Hyundai (13th, +23.2%) also performed well in March. Renault had mixed feelings, with a sales increase for Dacia (7th, +7.6%) and a sales regress for Renault (9th, -29%). It’s becoming a real tendency here that Renault’s daughter, Dacia, is performing better than the mother.

Once again, Stellantis is the biggest loser this month. Apart from Citroën, which registered a relatively slight sales loss (12th, -7.9%), the other brands’ sales were rather catastrophic: Opel (16th, -52.5%), Fiat (26th, -62%), Jeep (28th, -23.1%), DS (32nd, -58%), and Alfa Romeo (34th, -51.8%).

In these lower regions of the market, noticeable growers were Suzuki (20th,+17.1%), Porsche (22nd, +28.2%), Honda (27th, +89.6%), Polestar (29th, +31.3%), BYD (30th, +217%), Lexus (31st, +95%), Smart (35th, +1,100%), Lotus (37th, +141.7%), and Alpine (39th, +144.4%).

Between the losers down under, we remarked Land Rover (21st, -21.6%), Mini (23rd, -65.2%) anxiously waiting for the new models, MG (24th, -56.7%), Cupra (25th, -45.6%), SsangYong (33rd, -34.8%), and Jaguar (36th, -60.6%). Also noticed is the demise of Lynk&Co: two new contracts in March 2024 compared to 116 the year before (55th, -98,3%).

Looking at the first full quarter of 2024, we see that BMW is leading comfortably (10.5% market share), followed by Volkswagen (8.2% market share), Audi 8.1%), Mercedes (7.3%), and Volvo (6.3%).

In the second half of the top ten, there is Toyota in sixth place (5.8% market share), followed by Dacia (5.4%), Tesla (from 3.4 to 5.3%), Renault (4.5%), and Peugeot (from 7.7% down to 4.5% market share).