REVEALED: Europe’s most popular car in first half of 2023

Tesla continues to storm the European car market, with the firm’s electric Model Y being the most popular car in Europe across the first six months of 2023.

Figures from automotive analyst firm JATO Dynamics show that 136,564 Model Ys were registered across Europe between January and June. This was a huge 204 per cent increase on the first half of 2022.

It puts the Model Y ahead of cars like the Dacia Sandero (123,408) and Volkswagen T-Roc (111,692), while the Tesla Model 3 was also the second most popular electric car, with 42,588 registrations.

The Model Y was the most popular car in several countries, including Denmark, The Netherlands and in Norway, where it accounted for almost a quarter of the country’s entire car sales.

It also meant Tesla significantly increased its European market share, with the firm’s EVs accounting for 2.82 per cent of the the 6.56m new cars sold in the region in the first half of 2023. That puts it ahead of well-established firms like Nissan, Volvo and Seat, despite having a far smaller line-up of models.

JATO says that the sharp increase in Tesla sales comes following the start of local production in Germany, increasing the availability of cars and price cuts.

While sales of MGs, owned by the Chinese automotive firm SAIC Motor, continue to soar, JATO reports that other Chinese car brands are ‘gaining traction less quickly [in Europe] than analysts anticipated’.

Felipe Munoz, global analyst at JATO Dynamics, said: “The dominating narrative at the moment is around the big potential of Chinese manufacturers in Europe. The potential is certainly there, but the volume of registrations is not currently reflecting that.”

“It is not easy to continuously grow in such a competitive market, particularly when the brand is unknown and the product needs time to become popular with consumers. The perception of cars by Chinese manufacturers in the West needs to shift in order to see growth.”