The traditional narrow streets of the Italian towns and the difficulties to find parking areas continue to be the first driver for people to prefer small cars. In the last decade, the increased average price and the reduced purchasing power have further forced a large part of the population to choose a low-cost car, with the success of brands like Dacia, Kia, Hyundai.

After over 40 years from its arrival in the market, the best seller up to October 2023 is always the same: the city-car Fiat Panda which has a substantial advantage over all the followers (6.6% market share), with sales at 84,398 (-3.9%).

The Dacia Sandero, with 3.2% market share, rises 2 spots into 2nd with 40,717 units sold so far and a 49.0% increase from the previous year. The Lancia Ypsilon, ranks in 3rd position with 37,883 sales, an 8.9% year-on-year growth. 

The Toyota Yaris Cross rises 4 spots into 4th with 29,200 sales and a 33.7% boom in ytd volume.

The Volkswagen T-Roc jumps 6 spots into 5th with 27,240 sales (+29.5%), in front of the Fiat 500 at  26,590 (+9.3%), the Dacia Duster at 25,626 (+20.8%) and Ford Puma in 8th with 25,586 sales (+0.9%).

The Citroen C3 falls 6 spots into 9th with 25,379 sales (-8.6%) and the Fiato 500x rises 2 spots into 10th position with 24,581 registrations (+19.6%).

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for Top 40 models.

Excel Dataset

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You can have access to this service:

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Market Report

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Through our comprehensive global sales database and the expertise of seasoned consultants in this field, we can help you gain further insight into the automotive market trends and base your business decisions on actionable data.

Table of contents

• Country Overview
  • Geography
  • History
  • People & Politics
• Economic Outlook
  • Economy
  • Infrastructure
• Market Outlook
  • Market Heritage
  • Car Passenger’s segmentation
  • LCVs segmentation
  • Car Passengers Body Type mix
  • LCVs Body Type mix
  • Premium segment share
  • Chinese OEMs share
• Key Players
  • Top selling Groups 2022
  • Top selling Brands 2022
  • Premium Brands
  • Chinese Brands
• Market Data By Model
  • Top selling Models 2022
  • Top models by segment and body type
• Key Factors for market Evolution
  • Country development
  • Economic Outlook
  • Customer base evolution
  • Low-Carbon Transition Policy
  • Infrastructure & Investments
• 2023-2028 Volume Forecast
  • TIV evolution by segment
  • Cars and LCVs forecast
  • Segments forecast
  • Premium segment share forecast
  • Chinese OEMs share forecast
  • Forecast by Manufacturer

Price for market research: €2,500

Price for market research + Last 2 Years dataset in excel: €4,000

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Market trend and Outlook

Italy’s economic growth started slowing down last year, halting the post-pandemic rebound which had lifted growth to 7.0% in 2021 and 3.7% in 2022. In 2023 the situation worsen’t, with many projecting GDP to increase this year by just 1.8%. This outlook is confirmed by  quarterly trends, with Bank of Italy stating: “The indicators confirm the weakness of domestic demand, which reflects tighter credit conditions, inflation-driven household income erosion and the loss of momentum in the labour market. Sluggish global demand is weighing on exports.”

The Italian auto market on the other hand is performing very well, with sales in October 2023 growing for the 15th consecutive month and new registration reaching 139,052 (+20.1%). YTD figures at 1.32 million are growing 20.5% from the previous year.

Looking at cumulative data up to October 2023 brand-wise, Fiat reports the most sales at 148,932 (-2.2%), followed by Volkswagen at 102,910 (+19.1%) and Toyota at 81,372 (+8.8%).

Dacia rises 2 spots into 4th position with 72,549 sales (+31.4%), in front of Ford with 70,023 units sold (+9.9%), Peugeot at 69,615 (+18.5%) and Renault in 7th with  65,243 registrations (+32.6%).

Jeep rises 2 spots into 8th with 61,679 sales (+46.1%), in front of Audi at 57,164 (+27.0%) and BMW in 10th with 49,192 registrations (+26.2%).

Looking at specific models the Fiat Panda maintains leadership despite selling 3.9% less models compared to the previous year, followed by the Dacia Sandero far behind in second and up 49.0% in YTD sales.

Medium-Term Market Trend

In the last decade the Italian market has had many ups and down. Starting at 1.8 million sales in 2010, it had 3 consecutive years of negative y/y sales with a minimum of 1.29 million reached in 2013. From 2014 up to 2019 the overall trend was positive, reaching a maximum in 2018 of nearly 2 million sales.

At the end of 2019 the Italian market was standing at 1.9 million sales, but with the pandemic in 2020 the market took a substantial hit, moving to the 1.4 million mark. This -27.1% drop marked the Italian auto-market for the following years.

Post-Covid hasn’t looked too good for demand in the Italian market. 2021 showed a slight sign of recovery (+8.9%) that faded away in the following year. In fact, 2022 totaled 1.32 million sales, the lowest of the decade and a 9.6% decrease from the prior year. Despite the overall downtrend, the market did grow in the last 5 months of the year and luckily the momentum continues going into 2023, that started very strong.

There are still some issues that the market will have to confront if it wants to recover from the fall of 2022: first of all the current European sentiment that is pushing more towards EVs  is putting negative pressure on demand; and secondly in the last year we have seen a disruption in the global supply chain caused by a lack of raw materials, in particular for microchip production, that has lead manufactures to increase overall prices.

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 models.

The best-selling car ranking in Italy is dominated by small and medium cars due to the high use of vehicles in the urban environment and the arrival of electric and hybrid vehicles has not changed thew picture.

The traditional narrow streets of the Italian towns and the difficulties to find parking areas continue to be the first driver for people to prefer small cars. In the last decade, the increased average price and the reduced purchasing power have further forced a large part of the population to choose a low-cost car, with the success of brands like Dacia, Kia, Hyundai.

After over 40 years from its arrival in the market, the best seller is always the same: the city-car Fiat Panda which has now a huge advantage over all the followers, with year to date sales at 105,384 (-6.1%).

The second place is held by another pure Italian aged car. Launched in the early nineties the last generation of the Lancia Ypsilon is second with 40,968 sales (-6.3%) followed by the iconic Fiat 500. This model was originally launched in the fifties and subsequently re-launched in 2006. In all of these years the Fiat 500 was able to stay on top of the leaderboards, securing 3rd with 33,994 sales (-24.2%).

The first foreign model in the rankings is the Dacia Sandero, jumping 4 spots into 4th position with 33,920 (+16.7%) ahead of the Citroen C3 -up 2 spots– with 31,861 (+2.9%), the Jeep Renegade -down 2 spots- with 29,844 (-14.9%) and the Ford Puma with 29,455 sales (+3.5%).

The Toyota Yaris ranks in 8th with 27,789 (-14.6%), followed by the Toyota Yaris Cross -up 51 spots- with 25,997 sales (+250.6%) and the Peugeot 208 closing the Top 10 with 25,819 sales (+9.8%).

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for Top 40 models.

Market trend and Outlook

The Italian Market in 2022 totaled 1.32 million sales, a 9.6% decrease from the previous year and the lowest sales of the past decade. While in December sales grew for the 5th month in a row, reporting 104,915 new registrations (+21.0%).

Looking at cumulative data from 2022 brand-wise, the leader is still Fiat with 178,882 sales (-19.9%), followed by Volkswagen at 105,025 (-16.6%) and Toyota at 92,126 (+8.9%).

Ford maintains 4th position with 74,111 sales (-8.4%), while Peugeot moves down 1 spot accumulating 69,294 sales (-17.7%), followed by Dacia at 67,369 (+9.3%) and Renault at 59,715 registrations (-19.8%).

Citroen falls into 8th position with 55,863 sales (-13.8%), in front of Audi at 51,081 (+0.2%) and Jeep in 10th with 51,479 registrations (-18.9%).

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 models.

The best-selling car ranking in Italy is dominated by small and medium cars due to the high use of vehicles in the urban environment.

The traditional narrow streets of the Italian towns and the difficulties to find parking areas continue to be the first driver for people to prefer small cars. In the last decade, the increased average price and the reduced purchasing power have further forced a large part of the population to choose a low-cost car, with the success of brands like Dacia, Kia, Hyundai.

In 2021, the city-car Fiat Panda remains the best-selling car. With 112,198 sales (+40%), the Panda holds 7.8% share.

The Fiat 500 reaches 2nd position -up 30 spots- and reports 44,825 sales (+229.7%) with 3.1% market share, followed by the Lancia Ypsilon, which reached the third spot by rising 6 spots, selling 43,715 units (+70.4%) with 3% share as well.

In 4th and 5th positions there were respectively the Jeep Renegade -up 1 spot– with 35,052 sales (+18.9%) and the Toyota Yaris –up 57 spots- with 32,552 units (+398%).

The Fiat 500X fell in 6th position with 31,924 units sold (+0.5%), followed by the Citroen C3 -down 1 spot- with 30,952 units sold (+6.2%).

The Dacia Sandero falls 1 spot with 29,070 units sold (+3.5%), followed by the Ford Puma -up 3 spots- with 28,471 units sold (+18%).

At the end of the Top 10 ranking, we find the Jeep Compass with 28,398 sales (+22.7%).

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for Top 40 models.

Market trend

The Italian car market this year attempted to recover from the pandemic crash of 2020 and reported a very promising performance in the first half, followed by another double-digit fall.

Following the deep loss during the 2008-2011 crisis, when the market fell down from 2.4 up to 1.4 million units, the Italian vehicles market recovered in the period 2012-2017 reaching back the 1.96 million cars (plus LCVs to arrive at a total light vehicles market of 2.14 million).

Back at the physiological level, the market growth ended and a new phase, moderately declining, started in 2018 when sales declined 2.6% while holding a flat trend in 2019 with 1.92 million units sold.

The market suffered tremendously in 2020 as the global pandemic has impacted Italy very quickly. In fact, the fall was so harsh that we recorded the lowest annual volume for the country since 2014. Indeed, sales for 2020 have been 1,380,202, reporting a decline of 27.8%.

In 2021 the year started positively for the Italian market, in fact, in Q1 446,683 units have been sold, reporting a 28.6% increase in sales compared to Q1 2020 and kept growing quickly, reporting a 84.9% increase in sales with 437,201 units due to the incredibly low volumes in Q2 2020.

In Q3 sales started falling again in double-digits, losing 26.5% sales with 280,323 units, and remained down 29.6% in Q4 with 292,172 sales.

Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2021 have been 1.46 million, reporting a 5.5% increase compared to 2020.

Brand-wise, this year the leader Fiat (+9%) didn’t report any variation in market share, followed by Volkswagen (+2.7%), which lost 0.5% share. Peugeot (+6.6%) reached 3rd place, losing 0.1% share.  Toyota -up 2 spots- gained 22.6%, followed by Ford -down 2 spots- which lost 5.9%.

Renault registered the worst performance in the leaderboard by losing 8.3% and fell 2 spots, followed by Citroen (+4.8%) and Jeep which gained 9.7% sales. Closing the leaderboard we have Dacia -up 1 spot- gaining 13.7% this year and Audi rising 1 position and gaining 13.6%.

The most sold vehicle this year has been the Fiat Panda (+40.1%) for the 10th year in a row with 112,246 units sold, followed by the Fiat 500 -up 30 spots-, which gained 229.3% registering 44,766 new sales this year. The Lancia Ypsilon (+73.9%) closes the podium by jumping 6 spots as well and reports 44,595 new units sold.

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 models.

The best selling car ranking in Italy is dominated by small and medium cars due to the high use of vehicles in the urban environment.

The traditional narrow streets of the Italian towns and the difficulties to find parking areas continue to be the first driver for people to prefer small cars. In the last decade, the increased average price and the reduced purchasing power have further forced a large part of the population to choose a low-cost car, with the success of brands like Dacia, Kia, Hyundai.

In 2020, the city-car Fiat Panda remains the best-selling car. With 80.121 sales (-45%), the Panda falls to 5.8% market share but holds still more than double the sales of its closest competition.

The Fiat 500x reaches 2nd position by gaining 2 spots and reports 31.778 sales (-25.3%), followed by the Renault Clio, which returned in the third spot, jumping 2 positions, selling 31.638 units (-24.3%).

In 4th and 5th positions there were respectively the Fiat Panda HEV with 30.344 sales and the Jeep Renegade – up 1 spot- with 29.481 units (-29.3%).

The Citroen C3 reached 6th position with 29.157 units sold (-30%), followed by the Dacia Sandero -up 4 spots- with 28.100 units sold (-20.5%).

The Renault Captur entered the leaderboard by jumping 5 spots, with 25.844 units sold (-19.7%), followed by the glorious but dead Italian brand Lancia with the survived model Lancia Ypsilon with 25.648 units sold (-56.4%) falling 7 spots.

At the end of the Top 10 ranking, we find the Volkswagen T-roc –down 2 spots- with 24.794 sales (-37.4%).

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for Top 40 models.

Market trend

The Italian car market suffered tremendously in 2020 as the global pandemic has impacted Italy very quickly. In fact, the fall was so harsh that we recorded the lowest annual volume for the country since 2014.

Following the deep loss during the 2008-2011 crisis, when the market fell down from 2.4 up to 1.4 million units, the Italian vehicles market recovered in the period 2012-2017 reaching back the 1.96 million cars (plus LCVs to arrive at a total light vehicles market of 2.14 million).

Back at the physiological level, the market growth ended and a new phase, moderately declining, started in 2018 when sales declined 2.6% while holding a flat trend in 2019 with 1.92 million units sold.

After starting the year with a slight negative trend (-5.7%), a new era started in March for the entire World, and the immediate effect of measures taken by the Italian government to counteract the spread of the virus has blocked any commercial activity in the country.

After China, Italy was the first large country hit by the virus and despite the immediate actions taken by the government, the country is paying a huge contribution to this war. In fact, sales in April fell 97.5% as the country was in full lockdown.

Thanks to EU government incentives and the loosening of restrictions the market recovered effectively in the subsequent months, even reporting a 9.8% growth in September. In the following months, sales fell again significantly as the country was hit by the second wave of infections, and new restrictions were introduced.

Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 1.380.202, reporting a decline of 27.8% compared to 2019.

Looking at sales by fuel type, all the traditional ICE types fall faster than the market: petrol is off -38.7% to 523.140 and 37.5% share vs. 44.3% in 2019, diesel is down -40.2% to 461.274 and 33.1% share vs. 40% and GPL drops -31.1% to 94.260 and 6.8% share vs. 7.1%. In contrast, HEV soars 103% to 223.321 and 16% share vs. 5.7% in 2019, BEV surges 207.6% to 32.538 and 2.3% share vs. 0.5% last year and PHEV is up 319.1% to 27.408 and 2% share vs. 0.3%.

Brand-wise, this year the leader Fiat (-26.2%) gained 0.4% market share, followed by Volkswagen (-27.6%), which gained only 0.1% share. Ford as well gained 0.1% share, falling 27%.  Renault lost 24.7%, followed by Peugeot which lost 25.9%.

Toyota registered the best performance in the leaderboard by losing only 21.3% and jumped 1 spot, followed by Citroen (-25.7%) jumping 1 spot as well and Jeep (up 2 spots) which lost 27% sales. Closing the leaderboard we have Opel -down 3 spots- registering the worst performance by losing 44.3% this year and Dacia falling 1 position by losing 36.5%.

The most sold vehicle this year has been the Fiat Panda (-45%) for the 9th year in a row with 80.121 units sold, followed by the Fiat 500x -up 2 spots-, which lost 25.3% registering 31.778 new sales this year. The Renault Clio (-24.3%) closes the podium by jumping 2 spots as well and reports 31.638 new units sold.

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models.

Despite the national brand – Fiat – declines – the best-selling model keep to be the city-car Fiat Panda which has lost terrain in the last decade from a market share of 7.9% in the 2010 to a negative record of 6.0% in the 2018, before to show recovery in the 2019 (6.9%).

In the second place there is the survived model of the glorious but dead italian brand Lancia, the Lancia Ypsilon, which keep to find large lovers among italian female and is almost stable at a market share near 3%.

In third place the Renault Clio, leader among the imported vehicles, with a market share which follows the model age, with a last decade record share of 3.5% in the 2014 and actually penalized by the run-out of the previous version before of the current launch of the last generation.

Launched in the 2014 and produced in the italian plant of Melfi, in Basilicata, the Jeep Renegade ranks in fourth place with a record share of 2.1% ahead of the Fiat 500x one of the few Fiat still produced in Italy, in Melfi on the same Renegade platform, and the Dacia Duster which benefit from the second generation success and is jumping up a record share of 2.1%.

The beautiful Citroen C3 stands in seven place stable with a share in the range of 2.0%, below the share obtained by the previous generation, due to the less space available in the market for hatch models, after the success of small SUVs.

The new entrance on top of the list is the made in Germany Volkswagen T-Roc that is by the Toyota Yaris, leader in the hybrid combustion segment and the Fiat 500, in decline.

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for the Top 50 models.