Belgium Car Market in 2025 keeps shrinking. Sales up to November fell 9.2%, with Volvo and Tesla reporting the sharpest losses while Peugeot and Dacia defied the trend. EVs fell by 5%, with Mercedes looking to overtake Tesla and the leader Volkswagen.
Economic Environment
In 2025, Belgium’s economy is projected to grow by 1.2%, with inflation easing to 2.9% after a sharp increase to 4.4% in 2024 due to the withdrawal of energy support measures. The unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 5.7%, while the government deficit is forecast to widen to 4.9% of GDP, largely driven by rising ageing-related and interest expenditures. Public debt is set to increase to 105.1% of GDP in 2025 and continue climbing to 107.2% by 2026.
Broadly, Belgium’s economic activity is set to grow gradually, supported by modest gains in private consumption and business investment, and a slight rebound in exports. However, private consumption remains constrained by weak consumer confidence and high savings, while residential construction is expected to decline further before slightly recovering in 2026. Net exports are projected to contribute negatively to growth in 2025 due to rising imports. Employment is expected to grow modestly, with stable unemployment aided by higher labour market participation as the retirement age increases. Wage growth is forecast to slow, reflecting the overall decline in inflationary pressures.
Automotive Industry Trend and
The Belgian car market keeps struggling in 2025 as YTD figures up to November posted a 9.2% loss to 385,862 units.
Looking at cumulative data up to November 2025 brand-wise, BMW secured 1st position with a 10.9% share (-13.6%), followed by Volkswagen in 2nd with a 9.4% share (-8.5%).
Mercedes -up 1 spot- ranked 3rd (-5%) ahead of Audi -down 1 spot- in 4th (-16.5%), Dacia -up 2 spots- in 5th (+10.3%), Renault -up 2 spots- in 6th (+8.6%) and Peugeot -up 2 spots- in 7th (+11%).
Toyota dropped 2 spots into 8th (-20%) followed by Skoda -up 2 spots- in 9th (-9.5%) and by Volvo -down 5 spots- in 10th (-35.2%).
Looking at specific models, the BMW x1 rose to the top (+49%) climbing 8 spots, followed by the Volvo V60 -up 15 spots- into 2nd (+67%). The Dacia Sandero closed the podium in 3rd (-0.2%). Notably, the BMW 4 Series and the Tesla Model Y both dropped sharply out of the top 10, losing the 1st and 2nd spot respectively.
EV Market Trend and Outlook
Belgium’s EV market fell 5% up to November 2025, reaching a market share of 12%. Despite the positive performance during 2024, the market suffered from a contraction of the automotive industry as a whole as well as intensified competition from foreign carmakers and rising energy prices.
Volkswagen became the leader, with a 22.6% share despite only growing 1.556.5%. Tesla dropped into 2nd, losing 55.3% and 1 spot while Mercedes rose 2 spots into 3rd, up by 258.6%.
Medium-Term Market Trend
The car passenger’s market in Belgium was generally stable before the COVID-19 pandemic, fluctuating around the 500,000 units treshold and peaking at 549,607 units in 2018.
The arrival of the pandemic caused the market to collapse 21.5% in 2020. This fall in sales, would mark the Belgian market for the following years. In fact auto sales continued to fall, dropping another 11.2% in 2021 and 4.4% in 2022. Some of the factors that enhanced the crisis include increase in car prices that excluded low-income families from purchasing new vehicles as well as EU push towards EVs.
A rebound occurred in 2023, with sales increasing by 30.1%. However, in 2024, the market declined by 6% to 448,275 units, influenced due to factors such as the phasing out of certain tax advantages for ev models in the corporate sector.
EV adoption in Belgium has been on an upward trajectory. Starting from approximately 3,777 units in 2015, EV registrations grew to 10,301 units in 2017, and surged to 127,750 units in 2024, marking a 37% increase from the previous year. In 2024, battery electric vehicles accounted for 28.5% of the market share, overtaking plug-in hybrids
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands and top 10 Manufacturers Group.
