The Dacia Sandero is on track to be Europe's No. 1-selling car in January.
The small hatchback was ahead of the Volkswagen Golf 23,696 to 17,247, according to preliminary data representing 95 percent of sales in the European Union, the EFTA countries and the U.K.
Sandero sales were up 12 percent while Golf sales rose 50 percent.
The Peugeot 208 was third with sales of 15,883, a rise of 18 percent.
Passenger-car deliveries in Europe gained 11 percent in January as automakers such VW Group and Peugeot parent Stellantis gained from order backlogs.
If the Sandero holds on, it will be the third consecutive time that the Renault Group subsidiary has taken the Europe sales title for the month of January.
Europe's No. 1-seller in 2023, the Tesla Model Y, is off to a slow start. With a volume of 10,901, the Model Y was in 19th place.
Kerrigan Advisors recently sat down with Donnie and Denny Buckalew, co-owners of Buckalew Chevrolet, the 5th highest-volume Chevrolet dealership in Houston, Texas, to discuss their perspective on the changing auto retail industry and how challenges facing single-point dealers influenced their decision to sell their dealership.
It is not unusual for Tesla to struggle during the first month of a quarter. Last year it was No. 30 in the month of January but won the next two months and the quarter on its way to the 2023 title.
Another factor that could affect Tesla is a stalemate between the U.S. EV maker and workers in Sweden.
Extensive labor-union blockades against the Tesla have lasted almost four months, becoming the longest-running strike in the Nordic country since World War II, according to Bloomberg.
Tesla, however, still had the the Nos. 1- and 2-selling full-electric cars in January. The Model Y's sales were up 48 percent while Model 3 sales jumped nearly 300 percent.
There is a close race for the No. 7 spot with the VW T-Roc ahead of the Peugeot 2008 by 324 sales, according to Dataforce's preliminary figures.
An even more competitive race is for ninth place, with the Kia Sportage leading the Renault Clio by just 106 sales.
Toyota had six models in the January top 50, followed by VW brand with five and Peugeot and Skoda with four each.
