The Dacia Sandero is poised to be Europe's No. 1 seller for the second month in a row and the third time in five months.
Dacia sold 20,808 units of the small hatchback last month, a gain of 75 percent over the same month last year. The Sandero was also Europe's No. 1 seller in January and April.
Three vehicles stand in the Sandero's way for the top slot in May: the Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen T-Roc and Peugeot 208, according to preliminary figures from market researcher Dataforce.
Tesla sold 17,812 units of the Model Y premium midsize SUV last month, a gain of more than 2,000 percent, leaving it 2,996 units behind the Sandero, according to data representing 93 percent of sales in the European Union plus ETFA countries and the U.K.
The T-Roc is 3,145 units behind the Sandero (and 149 units behind the Model Y) while the 208 would have to make up 3,645 sales to match Dacia's best-seller.
The Renault Clio had sales of 16,829 units last month, based on the preliminary figures, which is a rise of 80 percent compared with May 2022.
That means there still could be some changes in the May ranking of Europe's top-sellers.
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The Model Y rejoined the upper part of the ranking after dropping out of the top 10 in April. That decline came after the SUV, which is built in Germany and China, had sales of more the 46,000 in March, pushing it into first place in first quarter sales.
Since then the Sandero has been steadily winning ground back from the Model Y and through May had a lead of more than 8,900 units over the EV (96,647 vs. 87,732), according to Dataforce's preliminary figures.
It's worth mentioning Tesla historically has reported big increases in the final month of a quarter, as was the case in March. June concludes the second quarter so all eyes will be on Tesla to see if it can erase the Model Y's deficit and pass the Sandero for the second quarter and first-half sales titles.
VW is in position to have three models in the top 10: the T-Roc, Golf and Tiguan. Meanwhile, VW Group sibling brand Skoda's Octavia surged back into the top 10 thanks to a 195 percent sales increase to 14,486 units. Octavia sales rose 222 percent in April.
In May, eight of the models in the top 10 recorded sales increases, according to Dataforce's preliminary figures. The only exceptions were the Peugeot 208 and Opel/Vauxhall Corsa.
The other cars in the top 50 with big gains in May were the MG ZS (+208 percent); VW ID4 (+117 percent); and Dacia Jogger (+97 percent).
