BMW at the top
While Kia, Skoda, and Tesla are fiercely competing in the Netherlands, in Belgium it’s the German brands that deliver the numbers. Premium brands, in particular, are doing relatively well, although the Belgian car market as a whole continues its stubborn decline.
Indeed: BMW is once again the most popular car brand in Belgium. This has been the case in previous years too, but it remains remarkable for Dutch people who are used to a volume brand like Kia or Volkswagen taking the top spot. Volkswagen is in second place in Belgium, but follows at a suitable distance with 38,770 cars to the 44,731 cars BMW managed to sell. Mercedes-Benz – more popular than BMW in Germany – follows in third place, with 30,490 cars registered in Belgium. Fourth place goes to that other German premium brand: Audi.
Only then does another ‘mainstream’ volume brand follow. In fact, even a budget brand, with Dacia undoubtedly attracting relatively many private buyers in Belgium. The top 10 is completed by Renault, Peugeot, Toyota, Skoda, and Volvo, respectively. In this case, we also want to mention number eleven, because that is Kia in Belgium. Precisely: the brand that has been in first place in the Netherlands for years.
Decline
In total, 414,771 passenger cars were sold in Belgium in 2025, reports industry organization Febiac. That is still more than in the Netherlands (390,885), but the difference is getting smaller. In the Netherlands, more cars were sold last year than in 2024, while in Belgium, it was 7.5 percent less. The decline is also not an incident, as 2024 in turn also performed worse than the preceding year. Changing rules regarding company cars are presumably the biggest inhibiting factor here, as non-electric ‘company cars’ (not to be confused with delivery vans) have recently become significantly less attractive in Belgium. The decline in sales figures is visible for all brands in the top four in Belgium, with BMW even having to contend with 11.3 percent fewer sales. Dacia, Renault, and Peugeot saw their sales figures rise, while Toyota, Skoda, and Volvo are among the decliners again.