Hungarian Vehicles Market grew up a robust 17.4% in 2018 ending the year with 136.534 units sold, improving for the 8th year in a row. Suzuki was on top of the list placing two models in the podium, with the Vitara – the market leader – and the SX4 Cross.
Economic Environment
Hungarian’s economy continued to fire on all cylinders in the third quarter, most likely supported by buoyant domestic demand. Strong wage gains coupled with solid retail sales growth throughout the quarter suggest consumer spending remained in the driver’s seat in Q3.
Moving to the final quarter of the year, available data suggests business activity remains resilient, while consumer confidence lost some steam, probably due to rising inflation. In order to address rising concerns of a significant slowdown in the real estate sector when the preferential VAT regime expires, the finance minister announced the government will propose extending the reduced VAT for housing from the end of 2019 to the end of 2023.
Although growth is set to moderate next year from this year’s outstanding performance, it will nonetheless remain healthy. The primary driver of the deceleration will be a marked slowdown in fixed investment growth, due to a softer absorption of EU funds. Consumer spending will also likely lose some steam, as wage growth gradually declines and job growth slows.
Market Trend
Hungarian vehicles market was heavily hit by the 2008 crisis losing 75% of volumes. However, in the recent years a strong recovery allowed the light vehicles market to double sales from the 63.931 in the 2012 to 136.208 in the 2017, albeit light commercial vehicles declined last year for the end of fiscal stimulus.
In the 2018 the market has kept the impressive run. Indeed, according to data released by the MGSZ, the Hungarian Associations of Car Manufacturers, starting with huge sales increase in the first quarters, the year ended with 136.534 sales with another astonishing 17.4% year-on-year improvement. Registrations has reached the highest level since 2008, closing with the 8th annual gain in a row.
Competitive Arena
At brand-wise, Suzuki is the best-selling brand for the 3rd time in a row, closing the 2018 with 19.292 sales (+27.2%).
In second place Ford with 13.653 sales (+20.1%) followed by Skoda with 11.842 (+12.5%), Opel with 11.346 (+11.4%), Volkswagen with 10.388 (+21.6%) and Toyota with 10.280 (+26.3%).
At model wise, with a 20% market share, Suzuki Vitara is the leader of the market – three times in a row – with 11.500 sales (+30.9%) and a wide gap over the second, the Skoda Octavia with 6.157 (+0.9%) and Suzuki SX4 Cross with 4.982 (+46.2%).
Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP)
The European Union has therefore developed a new test, called the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP).
The WLTP driving cycle is a test defined by the European Union defining new standard for vehicles with focus on CO2 emission and fuel consumptions. The test is divided into four parts with different average speeds: low, medium, high and extra high. Each part contains a variety of driving phases, stops, acceleration and braking phases.
For a certain car type, each powertrain configuration is tested with WLTP for the car’s lightest (most economical) and heaviest (least economical) version. WLTP was developed with the aim of being used as a global test cycle across different world regions, so pollutant and CO2 emissions as well as fuel consumption values would be comparable worldwide. However, while the WLTP has a common global ‘core’, the European Union and other regions will apply the test in different ways depending on their road traffic laws and needs.
WLTP will apply to all new car registrations from September 2018 when vehicles below the minimum index would not be registered within the European Union territory.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands and top 10 Models.
