The Dacia Sandero was the best-selling car in Europe by a significant margin last year, according to figures released by industry analyst Jato Dynamics.

A total of 268,101 examples of the value-focused supermini were registered in Europe (including the UK) last year, beating the second-placed Renault Clio by more than 50,000 units.

The Volkswagen Golf rounded out the podium with 215,715 sales. 

Sales of 2023’s most popular car, the Tesla Model Y, dropped by 17% to 209,214. That was still enough to secure its place as Europe’s most popular electric car, however.

SUVs remained the most popular type of car in Europe last year, accounting for a record 54% of all sales (so 6.92 million cars), up 4% compared with 2023. Indeed, of the 50 best-selling models, 27 were SUVs.

Supermini sales grew by 1.3% to 2.0m (or 15.5% of the market), while the traditional C-segment (hatchbacks) and D-segment (saloons) dropped by 1.3% and 3.3% respectively.

EVs’ share of the market shrunk from 15.7% in 2023 to 15.4% last year, while petrol models rose from 47.9% to 48.4%.

Jato attributed EVs’ slump to the withdrawal of incentives, as well as their high average price.

It expects EV sales to rebound in 2025, though, as new, more affordable models (such as the Renault 5 and Fiat Grande Panda) come to market.

Diesel cars' protracted slump in share continued, dropping 1.7% year on year to 14.3%. 

Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids dropped from 7.7% of the market to 7.3% and hybrids grew from 9.9% of the market to 11.8%.