PARIS -- Europe's two largest automakers had a close match for the region's sales title in 2021, with Volkswagen Group taking the title over Stellantis.
VW Group sold 3,158,559 vehicles last year, just ahead of the 3,081,590 units sold by Stellantis, according to figures from analytics provider Dataforce.
Dataforce based the result on sales of passenger cars and light-commercial vehicles of 3.5 metric tons or less in 31 countries, including the 27 EU nations, the UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
VW also led in 2020 with 3,256,865 sales to 3,058,064 for the brands that now make up Stellantis, which came into existence in early 2021.
But if Stellantis had existed in 2019, the company's combined sales of 4,174,868 would have topped VW Group’s sales of 4,119,887.
Stellantis was formed by the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. It includes 12 brands with European registrations. VW Group has nine brands under its umbrella.
In 2021, Stellantis relied on its strength in light-commercial vehicles to keep the race close. VW sold 2,950,256 passenger cars, compared with 2,437,797 for Stellantis. But the French-Italian group sold 643,793 LCVs, while VW Group sold 208,303.
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi remained in third place, with 1,788,266 passenger car and LCV sales in Europe, followed by fast-rising Hyundai-Kia, with 1,020,686 sales.
Just 45,000 vehicles separated the next four positions -- Ford, Daimler, BMW and Toyota -- a reminder of how tough competition in the stagnant European market continues to be.
