Europe’s best-selling car of 2024 was a £7k Romanian city runaround – is yours in the top 20?

The Dacia Sandero was the best-selling car in Europe last year. The budget small motor shifted almost 270,000 units, 50,000 more than the second best-seller, the Renault Clio.

The Romanian brand – owned by the Renault Group – is known for its unashamedly cheap cars and the Sandero city runaround is no different, costing from just €8,690 on the Continent, roughly £7,250.

The Sandero has dethroned the Tesla Model Y from its 2023 top spot in the rankings, which only emphasises what a disappointing year it was for EV sales in Europe.

Last year a decline of 1.2 per cent in EV sales, which is blamed on numerous factors including high upfront costs of new models and concerns around charging infrastructure.

Overall growth figures for all new car types weren’t much more positive because, while Europe’s new passenger car market did grow, they were only up 0.9 per cent – much lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Europe’s best-selling models have been revealed in new data from JATO Dynamics.

It shows that 12,909,741 new passenger cars were registered across the continent in 2024 – 268,101 of those being Dacia Sanderos.

That’s a 14 per cent increase on 2023 and double the increase in sales the second place Renault Clio enjoyed.

It marks the first year the Sandero has taken the top spot after losing out to the Tesla Model Y last year – the first EV to be not only crowned the best-selling car in Europe but in the world too – and coming second in 2022 to the Peugeot 208.

Most notably though it shows that super cheap cars are what European buyers want, as the Sandero is joined in the top 10 by its also very inexpensive sister car, the Dacia Duster.

The Duster landed in ninth spot, with the SUV costing €19,990 – or roughly £16,600.

The Renault Clio took second spot. Another cheap car, it also shows how popular small city cars are in Europe

The top three are all small city cars, and half of the top 10 cost less than €25,000.

The Renault Clio was the second best-selling car in Europe with 216,317 units sold, while the Volkswagen Golf (once the best-selling car in Europe for 14 years straight) came in third with 125,715 new registrations.

The Tesla Model Y dropped to fourth place – down 17 per cent on 2023- a big fall from last year’s gold position. 209,214 new Model Ys were registered compared to the 254,822 Model Ys registered across Europe in 2023.

While there are a few reasons for this, not least the year-on-year drop in EV sales which saw market share of zero emissions models contract from 15.7 per cent in 2023 to 15.4 per cent in 2024, the Model Y’s fall is also set against the fact that last year’s result was due in part to Tesla prices being slashed by up to £9,000 across Europe and other global markets.

Fifth and sixth were taken by the Volkswagen T-Roc and the Peugeot 208 which sold 202,840 and 199,909 units respectively.

Rounding out the podium places is the VW Golf which was the most expensive of the three best-sellers but still is around £30k so quite affordable for a more premium option

Europe’s best-selling car of 2023 was electric – the first EV to ever top Europe’s annual sales charts

Two Toyota’s ranked in the bottom half of the best-sellers list – the Yaris Cross in seventh and the Yaris in 10th. They shifted 194,006 and 174,042 units – a 10 per cent increase on 2023 for the Cross and a 12 per cent increase for the Yaris.

Out of a total market of 1,529,806 registrations in 2024, Toyota accounted for 738,500 units. 

Almost one in two hybrid vehicles registered in Europe in 2024 had a Toyota or Lexus logo, and 75 per cent of registrations of Toyota passenger cars were hybrid vehicles.

The Skoda Octavia took eight spot with 180,607 registrations, a 12 per cent increase on last year, while the Dacia Duster recorded 175,213 registrations to come home in ninth – a 13 per cent increase for the very cheap SUV.

Another entry from VW in the top 10: The T-Roc made is one of the most popular SUVs in Europe placing fifth overall

The 208 was 2022’s best-selling car in Europe but this year only took sixth place

Britain’s best-selling cars vs Europe’s – how are we driving different to our neighbours?  

Comparing the best-selling cars in Europe and the UK it’s very clear that Europe is going for bargain budget wheels.

While the Dacia Sandero is the cheapest on the list by more than €10,000, all of the cars that make it into the top 10 hit very accessible price points.

The second cheapest car is also a Dacia, the Duster, at under €20,000, but the Clio is also €19,600.

The VW which takes third place is also the third most expensive model in the top 10, starting from €30,740.

The only two more expensive models in Europe’s top 10 are the Skoda Octavia which starts from €30,760 and the Model Y which costs €42,990.

All the rest of the best-sellers cost below almost €27,000, with the Peugeot 208 and Toyota Yaris both less than €25,000.

Comparatively the top 10 best-selling new cars in the UK in 2024 had four cars over £30,00.

The Tesla Model Y was also the most expensive on the UK list, coming in at £46,990 while the Volvo XC40 (ninth) costs £35,310, the Hyundai Tucson (seventh) costs £32,400 and the Nissan Qashqai (third) is still £30,135.

The Skoda Octavia was registered 180,607 times earning it eighth spot

The Toyota Yaris Cross was awarded seventh place seventh and shifted 194,006 units

The Yaris was less popular than its bigger sibling but still crept into the top 10

Only one model in the top 10 is less than £20,000 – the VW Polo costs £21,210.

The next cheapest were the Nissan Juke which requires buyers to part with £23,500 and the MG HS which costs £24,995.

The rest of the cars range from £26,350 for the Ford Puma, the best-selling car in the UK last year, to the £29,890 Kia Sportage. 

While the UK has always been a lover of more premium cars, another reason for the higher priced best-sellers is because the UK has opted for more SUVs than Europe.

Eight of the UK’s top 10 are SUVs compared to just four of Europe’s.

Another very cheap entry by Dacua – the Duster is just under 20,000 euros and gives families a lot for the money

All three of the Britain’s most popular cars were SUVs and crossovers, compared to small city cars in Europe’s podium picks.

However where Europe and the UK were aligned was on hybrid and electric cars.

Only one EV slipped into both top 10 best-sellers lists – the Tesla Model Y.

The majority of cars that Europeans and the British liked had hybrid options available, and JATO data shows hybrids were the only segment to post a year-on-year growth in registrations – at 21 per cent.

This popularity is because hybrids are comparatively cheaper than battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and you don’t have to worry about the charging infrastructure.

JATO data puts the average retail price of a hybrid available in the Eurozone in 2024 at €42,222, compared to €62,709 for a BEV.

Although not all carmakers offer fully hybrid models, all carmakers that offered fully hybrid vehicles posted growth last year.