Spain's sales rose 1% in January despite chip shortages

Spanish new-car sales rose 1 percent to 42,377 in January, despite semiconductor shortages that hit vehicle supplies and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the industry group ANFAC.

Despite the increase, registrations for the month were less than half of the 93,546 registrations for the same month in 2019.

Registrations were also low in January 2021 because of the pandemic and heavy snowfall which affected Madrid and other parts of the country for almost two weeks.

Toyota was the leading brand last month thanks to a 52 percent jump in sales with the Toyota Corolla and C-HR the most popular models. Peugeot, whose sales rose 1 percent, was second among brands and Kia doubled sales to take the third place.

The market share for full-electric vehicles in January was 4.1 percent, the same level as the year before.