From top sellers to the biggest rises and falls in the Portuguese market in 2025

After a demanding year for Portugal’s automotive sector, 2025 still isn’t one to file away. As strong as the temptation is to focus on what’s coming in 2026, it’s last year’s figures for the Portuguese car market that are still driving the conversation.

The way sales shifted - and how the balance between brands moved - helps explain why this overview remains so important, particularly in a year shaped by economic uncertainty and ever more aggressive competition. There were clear winners, brands that ran out of momentum, others that kept gaining ground, and trends that are reshaping the market.

With that backdrop, on Auto Rádio - Razão Automóvel’s podcast, supported by PiscaPisca.pt - we took a close look at the 2025 numbers, the brands and cars Portuguese buyers chose most, and the trends that offer clues about what 2026 could look like.

Car market in Portugal (2025)

There is some good news. The car market expanded and, at last, returned to pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, more than 225 thousand passenger cars were sold in Portugal, up 7.3% year on year.

Peugeot stood out again as Portugal’s best-selling brand - it has led the market for five years. Even so, when attention shifts to the single best-selling model of 2025, the winner comes from its biggest rival: the Renault Clio.

That result was one of the year’s headline surprises. The Peugeot 2008 had topped the market from March through to November, and on Auto Rádio we laid out the striking December figures that allowed the Clio to overtake the 2008.

Still, that wasn’t the biggest shock in the national market. On Auto Rádio you can watch or listen to the full breakdown of the data and see which brands and models rose the most - and which slipped back.

Electric, hybrid or 100% combustion?

When it comes to powertrains, alternative options continued to gain share in Portugal. Taken together, electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles accounted for 69.7% of the market in 2025.

Within these choices, electric cars led with a 23.2% share and 52 256 units sold. Close behind were hybrids (including mild-hybrid), which reached a 22.3% share, equal to 50 117 units.

Even with this direction of travel, petrol-only engines remained the most popular single option, with a 24.5% share and 55 185 registrations across the year. Predictions for 2026? We make those too.

In this episode of Auto Rádio, we also reviewed how Chinese brands performed in the Portuguese market - overall, they more than doubled sales - as well as the luxury marques, which generally enjoyed a very strong year. Ferrari, for instance, was the brand that grew the most.

See you on Auto Rádio next week

There’s no shortage of reasons, then, to watch or listen to the latest episode of Auto Rádio, which returns next week on the usual platforms: YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.