Belux car sales in September almost one-fifth down

According to the latest data from the sector federation Febiac and the federal service Mobility & Transport, the registrations of new cars in September decreased by 18.6% compared to last year. Thirty-one thousand six hundred seventy-six (31,676) new vehicles were registered.

The cumulated data for the first three quarters show 356,568 registrations, 4.9% less than last year. The estimate of Febiac for 2024 has been adapted to approximately 455,000, a decrease of 4.5% compared to 2023.

Light commercial vehicles’ registrations decreased by 8.3% in September. Cumulated for the first nine months, there were 4.7% fewer LCV registrations in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Heavy commercial vehicles saw a noticeable increase of trucks below 16 tons (+100%), while the really heavy trucks (+16 tons) also increased (by 11.6%). Cumulated for the three first quarters, this means an increase of 14.6% for the trucks under 16 tons and a decrease in registrations of 10.4% for the heavier ones.

Motorized two-wheelers, finally, had an excellent September with a 6.8% increase in registrations, cumulating in a 2.7% plus when you look at the first nine months of 2024 compared to last year.

By brand

In a receding market, BMW continues to do well, registering 23.8% more cars in September than last year and staying comfortably first. Volkswagen is second, but registrations decreased by 19.3% there.

Mercedes, third, isn’t doing better: 36.9% and Audi (5th) isn’t in good shape either: 34.1%. The exception is a surprising Tesla: a rise of 78.5% means that the American electric brand now occupies fourth place in the September registrations.

Renault has jumped over Volvo for sixth place (+13.9%), but the Swedes still progress (+9.5%) and score 7th, just before Skoda (8th, -9.7%). Toyota is number nine with a slight decline (-4.6%), while Peugeot manages to stay in the top ten despite a regress of 24.7%.

All Stelantis brands seemed to be in trouble last month. Opel (15th) regressed by 37.9%, Citroën tumbled to 18th place with a -79.6% fall, Jeep (26th) didn’t do much better (-57.3%), Fiat (29th) didn’t break the record just (-80.9%), neither did DS (31st, -74.6%) because Alfa Romeo booked the worst results (37th, -84.9%).

Other noticeable losers were Kia (12th, -34.6%), Ford (14th, -34.4%), Nissan (17th, -35.1%), Land Rover (22nd, -39.4%), Suzuki (23rd, -43.8%), Cupra (24th, -51.9%), Seat (25th, -62.4%), Mazda ((28th, -74.4%), MG (30th, -78.1%), Honda (32nd, -64.8%), and Jaguar (39th) which managed to sell 12 cars in September instead of 70 last year (-82.9%).

There were a few positive figures, too, apart from Tesla: Mini (13th, +69.2%), Porsche (19th, +32.8%), Polestar (20th, +87%), and Lexus (27th, +73.7%). Most remarkable is the growth of BYD (21st, +523.9%), followed by Smart (34th, +189.4%) and BAIC (38th, +180%), but in the two last cases, we’re still talking about very small numbers.

A short look at the cumulated figures for the first nine months shows that not much has changed. BMW leads comfortably before Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes, and Volvo. Toyota, Dacia, and Renault are in a close battle for sixth, seventh, and eighth place, respectively.

Number nine is the remarkably well-performing Tesla (almost 4.7% market share). Peugeot is still in the top ten, but its market share has fallen from 6.5% to 4.5%.