The Peugeot 208 has toppled the Volkswagen Golf from the roof of Europe. Last year, almost 220,000 of the compact transalpine cars of one of the French brands of Stellantis – the group born from the merger between FCA and PSA – were delivered (with a growth in volumes of around 10%) and secured the not exactly platonic of best-selling car title in the Old Continent.
The primacy for the 208 (the best-selling model in France and the Netherlands and on the podium in Portugal, Luxembourg and Belgium) was claimed by Stellantis with a note in which “Official country data” is cited as the source (Europe 30) . The Focus2move company also placed the French car in first place, but in communicating the sales data for 2022 Dacia said it had delivered 229,500 Sanderos, for which it however spoke “only” of the best-selling model to private individuals.
Again according to Focus2move, albeit with a ranking not updated at the end of the year, Volkswagen would remain on the podium, but with the T-Roc SUV, which would precede the Dacia Sandero. The Golf would fall from first to fourth position.
Based on the data cited by Stellantis, the Romanian car from the Renault group would be in second place ahead of the Toyota Yaris and the two German cars: the T-Roc fourth and the Golf fifth. The same Top 10 also includes the Fiat 500 (6th, also debuted in the metaverse), the Opel Corsa (7th and marketed in the Anglo-Saxon world under the Vauxhall brand) and the Citroën C3 (8th).
For overall volumes of cars and light commercial vehicles, the Franco-Italian group of which the state-controlled Banque Publique d’Investissement holds 6.2% has made it known that it excels in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It also stated that it is “the leader in the LCV segment (which it presides over with Fiat Professional, Citroën, Peugeot and Opel/Vauxhall, ed.) with a market share of 30.6%”. “One in three commercial vehicles is manufactured by Stellantis,” recalls the group.
The Blue Oval for its part made it official that it confirmed Ford Pro “for the eighth consecutive year, leader in the commercial vehicle market, in 2022, in Europe (21 countries, including Turkey and the United Kingdom), achieving a new record for the sector”. The share declared by the American manufacturer is 15%.
In the electric vehicle segment and as part of the Dare Forward 2030 plan, Stellantis reached a share of 15.7% (1.7 points more than in 2021, “the largest in the market”, reads a note). The success of the New 500 Electric and the zero-emission variant of the 208, which is also the preferred electric in France, have contributed to this result. In the so-called Low Emissions Vehicles (LEV) market, Stellantis increased volumes by over 31%. “We are constantly working towards our goal of being Carbon Net Zero in 2038 and are ready to launch new electric models already this year”, assured Uwe Hochgeschurtz, Coo for the Enlarged Europe area of Stellantis.
