Europe December sales by brand and model: Rolls-Royce, Cupra, Chinese win big

More than 30 brands -- of which 11 were of Chinese origin or get all their production from the country -- increased their December European sales by more than the market, which was up 15 percent.

Nine brands, led by Hyundai luxury marque Genesis and China's Nio, BYD and MG, reported triple-digit percentage sales gains during the final month of 2022.

Meanwhile, Cupra, Tesla, Polestar, Maserati, BMW, Audi, Kia and Volkswagen were among the 20 brands that had double-digit percentage increases in December sales, according to preliminary figures from market researcher Dataforce.

Hyundai Group's luxury brand Genesis was up more than 580 percent to 473 registrations compared with 69 in December 2021 when it was just entering the market.

Chinese newcomer Nio boosted sales by nearly 530 percent in December with 420 registrations, led by its ES8 premium electric SUV, according to data representing about 94 percent of sales in the European Union plus ETFA countries and UK.

China's BYD increased sales nearly 400 percent to 996 in December led by the Yuan Plus (also sold as the Atto 3).

Another Chinese brand, MG, increased sales more than 300 percent to 15,070. This was driven by strong demand for the MG ZS small crossover, which more than tripled sales during the month to 4,364 compared with December 2021

In addition, the new MG4 accounted for 3,340 sales last month, up from zero during the same month last year because the full-electric compact is new to the market.

Other Chinese brands to report quadruple-, triple- or double-digit sales increases during the month included Hongqi, Maxus, Aiways, Xpeng and Great Wall.

Lynk & CO and Polestar, both of which are part of China's Zhejiang Geely Holding and get all their cars from the country, also reported big gains in December.

Maserati increased sales 67 percent to 788, of which the new Grecale premium midsize SUV accounted for 81 percent of the Stellantis luxury brand's volume, up from 78 percent in November.

Tesla had a double-digit percentage increase in sales last month to 54,814 units largely because of a more than 300 percent surge in sales of the Model Y, which finished the month as Europe's best-selling vehicle for the second month in a row.

It was the third time in four months that the premium midsize SUV was the region's No. 1-seller.

Rolls-Royce increased sales more than 100 percent because of strong demand for the Cullinan ultraluxury SUV.

Volkswagen Group's Cupra subsidiary more than doubled sales to 15,961, helped by demand for the Born electric compact, which accounted for 7,428 sales, up from the compact EV's 2,250 sales in December 2021. Also, sales of the Cupra Formentor compact SUV grew nearly 40 percent to 6,105.

BMW's sales increased 37 percent to 65,386 helped by an 87 percent rise in sales for the X5 premium large SUV.

Audi's sales jumped 35 percent to 60,267 vehicles on strong demand for the A6, which recorded a gain of nearly more than 140 percent.

VW brand rose 27 percent because of brisk demand for the ID3, ID4 and ID5 full-electric cars. Another winner for VW was the Taigo small SUV.

Also, among the brands that recorded gains during the month were Mazda (+66 percent), Lexus (+62 percent), Jeep (+25 percent) and Kia (+21 percent), according to Dataforce's preliminary figures.

The 10 brands that recorded gains but were below the market average included Lamborghini (+11 percent), Dacia (+10 percent) and Skoda (+7.2 percent).