Skoda registered 457,663 cars across the EU27+4 markets in the first half of 2026, up 10.8% year on year, according to figures Skoda published itself. That keeps the brand in second place among all carmakers in Europe, a position it first reached in the first quarter of 2026, when it registered 222,500 cars, up 17.1% year on year.
Best-selling brands, EU27+4 registrations, H1 2026.
The gap over third place widened rather than held steady. Skoda finished H1 2026 with 14,966 more registrations than Toyota, making it the most improved brand inside Europe’s top 10 by year-on-year growth. Volkswagen kept the overall lead by a wide margin, on 725,604 registrations, even as its own volume slipped 3.0%.
Skoda’s global deliveries reached 555,700 vehicles in H1 2026, spanning every market the brand sells in, not only the EU27+4 registrations counted above. The company’s electric-vehicle deliveries were the fastest-growing part of that total, up 48% year on year to a new company record.
Further down Europe’s brand ranking, two Chinese entrants grew far faster than anyone in the top 10: BYD’s European registrations rose 145.5% year on year to reach 18th place, and Chery’s rose 305.8% to 20th. Both remain well behind the volumes of an established mass-market brand like Skoda, but the growth rates point to where competitive pressure is building next.
A value-positioned brand passing long-standing premium and mainstream names in the same ranking is not a one-quarter blip - Skoda has now held second place for two consecutive quarters. What happens from here depends on whether its record EV growth can be sustained as more competitors, Chinese and European alike, enter the same price segments Skoda has built its position on.
Source: Skoda H1 2026 registration figures
