51 760 cars were newly registered in Belgium and Luxembourg in the month of June, 48,7% more than the same month last year. It also means that the first half-year registrations grew by 35,4% to 264 475, indicating that the supply and delivery problems in the car market are finally fading away.

The same tendency is noticeable for LCVs, with a registrations increase of 41,4% in June and +23% for the first six months. Similar figures are registered for heavy commercial vehicles.

The registrations under 16 tons grew by 42,7% in June and by 25,1% for the first half-year. Above 16 tons, we got an almost identical evolution, with +43,5% in June and +24,4% for the first six months of 2023.

The two-wheeler category has been doing well too: +23,3% in June (3 641 registrations) means that the cumulative registrations for the first 6 months are finally somewhat higher (+3%) than last year, totaling 15 276 new motorbikes, scooters, three-wheelers and light four-wheelers registered.

Top five by make

In June, the top 5 of best-sellers changed quite a lot. While BMW (just) lost its top position to Volkswagen, 5 026 against 5 302 car registrations respectively, Renault is sneaking in at a fourth place, pushing Audi out of the top 5 to sixth place. Peugeot remained in 3rd place, and Mercedes was 5th.

Looking at the first 6 months, the hierarchy of previous months remained, putting BMW still on top, with a 10,2% market share (+0,1%), followed by Volkswagen (market share up from 8,5% to 9,1%). The other three saw their market share shrink: Peugeot (3rd) has a 7,2% share (-0,9%), Mercedes (4th) has 7,1% (-0,6%), and Audi (5th) 6,6% (-0,7%).

Serious growers

When one searches for serious growers in June, we’re bumping on Renault (+79,6%, 4th place)) and Dacia (+85,7%, 7th place)), Volvo (+175%, 9th place)), Tesla (+281,2%, 12th place), MG (+657,8%, 19th), Mazda (+105,7%, 20th)), Cupra (+471%, 22nd, surpassing mother brand Seat), Land Rover (+91,24%, 23rd), Alfa Romeo (+179,1%, 29th), Lynk &Co (+250%, 31st), and Lexus (+267,6%, 32nd).

Looking at the first 6 months, those figures are attenuated, but some brands are still standing out. Tesla (15th place overall), of course, with a 268,9% growth in the Belux, confirming its record figures worldwide. Other noticeable climbers are Dacia (+69,9%, 8th place overall), Mazda (+67,9%, 21st), Land Rover (+94,4%, 22nd), Suzuki (+79,5%, 23rd), Cupra (+363,1%, 24th), MG ( a whopping +335,2%, 26th), and Alfa Romeo (+166,3%, 30th).

Of course, when we talk about a +20 place in the ranking, figures tend to be much smaller, and sales results can differ quite violently from month to month. Nevertheless, Chinese car brand MG is a continuous climber, confirming its excellent shape with an entrance in the top 20 of sales in June.

There aren’t many brands that are losing ground this June, that’s why the result of Honda is really worrying. Losing 48% of sales in a market that is going up by the same percentage is quite disastrous. Other makes doing not very well in June are Seat (-12,2%, suffering from the shift to Cupra) and DS (-21%).

When we look at the entire six months, the only significant loser remains Honda (-47,4%), signaling that there is something really wrong with the popularity of that brand in the Belux.

New era?

With some 265 000 cars sold in the first 6 months of 2023, the market is still far away from the average sales figures for the first half-year (always the best sales half by far in the Belux) between 2010 and 2019: more than 307 000.

Most analysts think that those times will never come back. Most of the people working in the sector would be very happy, they say, with a market closing at a little bit under 500 000 this year.

But 2023 is an odd year because you have to take the delayed deliveries into account and the sales rush on PHEVs before their tax situation got less interesting. Most analysts are thinking of a stable 420 000 to (max) 450 000 new registrations in the following years.

And then there’s the individual buyer who is still turning to the second-hand market because he doesn’t know what to buy new anymore and doesn’t feel happy by being pushed to (in his eyes) overpriced electric vehicles.

And there’s another important factor looming in the more distant future: current cars have an average life cycle of 12 years in our regions, future electric cars could easily have a lifespan of 20 years for more than 75% of the customers. That will result again in fewer sales. And then we haven’t even talked about the fact that a lot of youngsters aren’t interested anymore in owning a car. It’s not easy to be a car salesman in these times, unless you’re selling super (luxury) vehicles.