Fewer cars will be sold in the Netherlands in 2022 than the year before. In total, dealers sold 312,000 cars, 3.2 percent less than in 2021. This is evident from figures from trade organization BOVAG and RAI Association, in collaboration with data specialist RDC.
In December in particular, the number of cars sold was much lower than a year earlier. 31,000 cars were sold, or 12.3 percent less than a year earlier.
The lower sales figures can be explained by the delivery problems that many car manufacturers are facing. These originate in the global chip shortages that have persisted for two years.
It is striking that after almost two decades, Volkswagen is no longer the best-selling car brand. That position was taken over by the Korean Kia last year. The brand sold more than 30,000 cars, representing a market share of approximately ten percent. Last year, Kia was still number two. The best-selling model was the Peugeot 208.
The share of electric cars in total sales was almost a quarter. This number has been rising slightly for years, at the beginning of 2021 it was still about one fifth of the cars sold. The Kia Niro is the best-selling electric car with 7,277 models sold.
BOVAG and RAI Association expect much higher sales figures for 2023, of around 340,000 cars sold. It is expected that previously ordered cars that cannot yet be delivered will find their way to customers this year. Factories will also be able to produce more easily again, because parts shortages are expected to decrease.
Purchase subsidy in US
The first trading day of the year was a particularly good day for the European and Korean car industry. The news came from the United States that electric cars built in Europe may still be eligible for a substantial purchase subsidy in the US. They must then be leased to American consumers.
So far it seemed that cars built outside the US could not claim this, which led to a lot of irritation among European carmakers. The news from Washington caused share prices of car manufacturers worldwide to rise. In Seoul, Kia and Hyundai both rose by around four percent, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and Porsche rose more than 2 percent in Frankfurt.
A version of this article also appeared in the January 3, 2023 newspaper