Slump in new car sales worsens in July
In July, 1,106 new passenger cars were sold in Estonia — 40.3 percent fewer than in 2024.
The new passenger car market in Estonia, which had shown signs of recovery in previous months, saw a sharp and expected decline in July.
A 2-percentage-point increase in the value-added tax (VAT) rate, combined with the traditional summer holiday season, brought new passenger car sales down to just 1,106 vehicles in July — 40.3 percent fewer than in July of last year, according to the Estonian Association of Motor Vehicle Dealers and Service Companies (AMTEL).
In June, the new car market had still been showing signs of rebound: 1,549 new passenger cars were sold in Estonia, roughly a thousand more than in January and about 500 more than in April. Compared with June of last year, however, sales were still down 14.5 percent.
In total, 7,262 new passenger cars have been sold in Estonia in the first seven months of this year, which is 39.6 percent fewer than during the same period last year.
A total of 100 electric vehicles were sold in July, accounting for 9 percent of all new passenger car sales. Hybrid cars made up 59.5 percent of the total, while gasoline-powered vehicles accounted for 21.2 percent.
Toyota reclaimed its position as the most popular car brand in July with 163 new vehicles sold, after falling behind Škoda in June. Škoda followed with 139 vehicles sold and Renault came in third with 126. Among individual models, the Toyota Corolla was the most popular in July (68 units), followed by the KIA Sportage (63) and the Dacia Duster (52).
The commercial vehicle market saw a slightly smaller decline — 246 new commercial vehicles were delivered to customers in July, down 9.6 percent from the same month last year. In June, 374 commercial vehicles were sold, which was 7.7 percent fewer than the year before.
In total, 1,917 new commercial vehicles have been sold in the first seven months of this year — a 31.7 percent decrease compared with the same period in 2024.
The most popular commercial vehicle brands in July were Toyota (57 vehicles), Peugeot (49) and Ford (31). The top-selling truck brands were Volvo (14) and Scania (12).
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Editor: Valner Väino, Marcus Turovski
