Car sector federation Traxio has been studying the latest registrations (first six months of 2023) of new and second-hand cars in Belgium and concludes there’s a real (double) schism in the market between B2B and B2C and between regions.

65% of all new cars have been registered as B2B company cars (companies, leasing, VAT liable), and only 35% by individual buyers (B2C). If we look at B2B specifically, we see that Brussels leads the pack with a whopping 86,4% of B2B registrations, followed by Flanders with 73%, and Wallonia with… 27,9%.

One of the reasons for this significant difference is that many leasing companies have their headquarters in the Brussels region. Still, far fewer cars are purchased in a B2B context in Wallonia.

The second-hand market is entirely different. 89% is B2C here. Wallonia leads the pack here with 91,4%. Only 22% of the new cars are sold in Wallonia, but 37% of the second-hand cars. In Brussels and Flanders, there’s an opposite tendency: they register more new cars than second-hand ones.

Fuel related

When one looks at newly registered cars, there’s an increasing amount of electric cars and hybrids. Still, here also, there’s a big difference between Wallonia (only 7% of total new registrations) and Brussels (21,4%) or Flanders (18,2%). New cars on gasoline are still thriving well in the three regions, especially in Wallonia.

Here also, there’s a big difference with the second-hand market – no sign of EVs or hybrids yet; gasoline cars remain the master of the game. In Wallonia, even the diesel car remains very popular as a second-hand car, scoring as high (47%) as the gasoline car. In Flanders and Brussels, diesel cars only represent 30%.

“The figures show enormous differences between regions and types of buyers,” Traxio spokesman Filip Rylant concludes. “The gap between individual buyers and company cars is still growing, and the enormous differences between regions make that car reality in Belgium isn’t uniform anymore.”

Between policy and reality

These figures make clear that there’s not only a schism in the market but also in the governmental policies. The figures reveal that Wallonia (also less wealthy than the other regions) is not ready for the energy transition and the measures that go with it.

Nevertheless, the Walloon government plans to make the whole region an LEZ zone as of 2025. Euro 3 cars and the like are no longer wanted on Walloon roads, while many still drive or even buy such a car.

According to Traxio, 440 000 cars would be affected by this measure, one-fourth of the entire Walloon car park. The announcement of this stringent policy also explains why second-hand cars are now getting cheaper again, while prices were booming these last years, also because of the shortage and delivery delays of new cars.

According to the same policy, Euro 4 vehicles should be banned as of 2026, Euro 5 cars as of 2028, and Euro 6 as of 2030. However, these LEZ-plans already date from 2019, and the original plan was to ban the Euro 1 and Euro 2 vehicles already this year.

But as there is still no decree voted or no executive order issued yet, the whole LEZ story in Wallonia could become a real ‘Echternach-style’ procession. Wait and see, say the Walloons, as they drive off in their smoky diesel.