Clio overtakes Golf to become Europe’s best-selling car

THE Renault Clio has proved it still has plenty of va-va-voom by roaring past Volkswagen’s Golf to become Europe’s best-selling car.

A total 24,914 new Mk 5 Clios were registered in February, compared with 24,735 VW Golfs.

There was a 4% sales drop for Clios compared with February 2019, while the Golf was down by 21%, analyst JATO Dynamics said.

The Clio was popularised through hit ads including the “va-va-voom” campaign fronted by French footie ace Thierry Henry from 2001 to 2005 and the “Papa and Nicole” campaign, which ran from 1991 to 1998.

The Peugeot 208 came in third this February with 20,923 registrations and the Vauxhall Corsa fourth with 18,406. A 10% rise in sales pushed the Fiat Panda up to fifth place on 17,680 new motors. The figures also showed no sports utility vehicles among the top 10 sellers.

Overall, February was another month of decline for the European market. Registrations were down 7% year on year, from 1,143,852 in 2019 to 1,063,264. And it was the worst February since 2015, when 955,113 new cars were sold.

But sales of electric vehicles, including hybrid, plug-in hybrid and totally electric, doubled in France and Germany – where they make up 14% and 12% of the market respectively.

EVs have a UK market share of 13%, which is the second highest of the five biggest European car markets. But the leader for electric vehicles by a considerable margin is Norway – where 75% of all new cars are fully electric.