Electric 'sorpasso': the Tesla Model 3 becomes the best-selling car in Spain for the first time in history

For the first time in history, the best-selling car during a calendar month in Spain has been an electric car. The Tesla Model 3 has been the best-selling car of the month with 2,528 units registered, surpassing all of its combustion rivals. The Seat Ibiza occupied the second step of the podium with 2,183 units registered during the month of September 2026, and the Dacia Sandero, which until now had dominated the ranking of best-selling cars with an iron fist, falls to fourth position with 2,157 registrations in Spain.

The surprising leadership of the Tesla Model 3 –a vehicle that has a base price close to 40,000 euros– can be attributed directly to the spiral of rising fuel prices due to high geopolitical instability and the fact that it is a well-established car with some seniority in the market, which offers guarantees of safety and reliability to new buyers.

The ranking of the best-selling cars in the month of September in Spain does not include any other electric model among the ten best-selling vehicles. It is worth noting that the vast majority of the best-selling cars are vehicles with modest power, conventional hybrid technologies or efficient, low-consumption gasoline engines and a price range that moves around 20,000 and 25,000 euros.

By brand, Toyota manages to consolidate itself as the best-selling brand with three models among the top ten (Corolla, Yaris and C-HR) and accumulate 9,172 sales in September and already 80,684 cars during the first nine months of the year, leaving its immediate pursuers far behind, which are Volkswagen (57,609 units) and Renault (52,815 registered cars).

The Dacia Sandero is still the best-selling of the year

Despite the surprising leadership of the Tesla Model 3 in the ranking of best-selling cars in Spain in the month of September, it is worth noting that in the year-to-date total, the Dacia Sandero has accumulated 25,926 registrations between January and September and maintains an advantage of 3,906 units over the Seat Ibiza, second with 22,020 units registered during 2026. However, the Sandero is showing the first symptoms of exhaustion and has accumulated a 9.9% decrease in registrations compared to the same period in 2025.

However, it remains to be seen whether the new Dacia Sandero with hybrid mechanics and a base price of less than 20,000 euros will serve as a catalyst for the regressive dynamics of the Romanian model, which has been monopolizing the podium of best-selling cars in Spain for over 13 years.

The Chinese, very close to the top 10

Finally, it is worth highlighting the good performance of the Chinese SUV MG ZS and its tenth place. And the eleventh position goes to the Omoda 5, with 1,321 units sold during the month of September. Omoda has also sold quite a few units of the Omoda 7 and accumulates a year-on-year growth of more than 50%. In twelfth position we find another growing Chinese model, the BYD Atto 2, a fully electric car that registered 1,256 units during the month of September.

Ebro, for its part, continues to grow strongly in the Spanish market with 2,096 cars registered during the month of September, 76% more than the previous year, and reaches 20,088 units registered since the beginning of the year, 185.7% more than in 2025.