Dutch Auto Market drops 5.1% in 2024 in year-on-year volume. Sales in September reached 26,279 (-5.1%). Kia became the market leader, growing 6.9% compared to prior year, followed by Volvo (+93.1%) and Toyota (+14.4%).
Market Trend and Outlook
Following an economic slowdown in 2023, gross domestic product (GDP) in Q1 2024 decreased by 0.1 percent. The slight contraction in Q1 was mainly due to a fall in exports of goods, related to the contraction of the manufacturing sector, and greater withdrawals from inventories.
The European Commission expects the Dutch real economy to grow 0.8% in 2024 as real wage recovery is set to support private consumption. Growth is also expected to benefit from an increase in public investment related to the green transition and defence, among others. However, business investment is projected to remain weak due to persisting labour shortages and tight financial conditions. Net trade is set to have a minor negative impact on GDP growth in 2024.
The slow economic start to 2024 also impacted in the Dutch auto market which in September fell for the 7th month in a row. September sales totaled 26,279 (-5.1%). YTD figures at 264,886 dropped by 4.3% compared to the prior year.
Looking at cumulative data up to September 2024, brand-wise Kia rose 1 spot and ranked 1st with 25,573 sales (+6.9%), followed by Volvo -up 8 spots- at 23,161 units sold (+93.1%), Toyota at 21,646 (+14.4%) and Tesla -up 5 spots- at 19,477 new registrations (+35.9%).
Volkswagen dropped 4 spots and ranked 5th with 16,064 sales (-36.5%), followed by BMW -up 1 spot- at 15,793 (+4.6%) and Hyundai -down 1 spot- with 14,424 units sold (-6.7%).
Skoda ranked in 8th position with 13,645 new sales (-9%), in front of Renault -down 4 spots- at 12,996 (-16.3%) and Peugeot -down 6 spots- in 10th with 11,243 units sold (-32.5%).
Looking at specific models, reported in the dedicated article, the Tesla Model Y was still the best-selling car, rising 15% from the previous year. The Kia Niro followed in second with a 68.5% year-on-year growth.
Medium-Term Market Trend
The Dutch Auto market presented many ups and downs in the past 12 years. It started in 2011 at 578k sales, the highest level of all the following years. A 3 year downtrend took sales to 384k in 2014 with 2015 and 2016 alternating trends, +18.1% and -16.2%, respectively. From 2017 to 2019 car passenger sales grew overall despite the growth getting smaller each year.
The arrival of the pandemic shook the world markets and the dutch one was no exception, reaching the lowest level of the decade at 355k registrations (-19.9%).
It is clear that the fall of the pandemic has scarred the Dutch auto market. In fact, the market collapse continued through 2021 into 2022, with this past year totaling 311,429 sales, a 3.2% decrease compared to the prior one.
Although Europe is an important center for EV manufacturing, Germany in particular, the production costs haven’t been able to meet with the consumers willingness to pay, with the average cost of new BEVs at euro 55,821. Lack of raw materials and elevated costs for microchip production also pose a threat for the Dutch car passenger market, that is already having to confront higher prices and longer waiting times, pushing lower income consumers into the second hand market.
These factors predicted to have a negative pressure on sales. Despite, the Dutch auto market in 2023 reported a total of 369,244 sales, up 18.6% from the previous year.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models
