Luxembourg Autofestival

Each year, the Luxembourg Autofestival draws crowds of prospective buyers and car enthusiasts with great deals and all the latest mod-cons. A whopping 52,811 new cars were sold in 2018, narrowly beating the 2017 record of 52,775.

The Luxembourg Autofestival is unique in that it takes place on a more local level than other motorshows. Interested buyers can visit showrooms in their area, consult car dealers and sign a sales contract and trade in their old vehicle straight away. They can also take cars for a test drive and compare vehicle and deals on site.

This year, about 75 car dealerships across Luxembourg have announced their participation. Around 30,000 visitors are expected to attend this year's event over a 10-day period, at which they will be able to discover more than 50 brand-new products across 130 showrooms.

To see which car dealerships are taking part in your area, check out www.myauto.lu.

Autofestival 2019: Probable winners and losers

The Volkswagen emissions scandal certainly had a negative effect on sales of diesel cars in Luxembourg in 2018. After several cities, most notably in Germany, have introduced diesel driving bans in their inner-city areas in 2018, this trend looks set to continue.

Petrol car sales (48.9%) ounumber diesel car sales (46.9%) for the first time in years. / © SNCA

After years of state support for diesel-powered vehicles, the fuel has fallen into disrepute. In Luxembourg, the sale of diesel cars went down by 13% in 2018 and has been overtaken by petrol-engined models (+15.4%) for the first time in over ten years.

Another ongoing trend over the past several years has been the ever increasing popularity of electric and hybrid cars. The market is clearly catching on to this and car companies have substantially upped their investments into these relatively new technologies. While electric and hybrid vehicles were still rather rare only ten years ago, the 2019 edition of the Luxembourg Autofestival is likely to offer a large variety of choice to prospective would-be buyers.

While hybrid and electric cars are doing well, only 7 vehicles running on compressed natural gas were sold in Luxembourg in 2018 (-22.2%). / © SNCA

While hybrid and electric cars still make up a relatively small percentage of overall car sales in Luxembourg (3.4% and 0.8% in 2018), the number of new passenger car registrations for these types of vehicles has gone up significantly over the past year. Hybrid car sales went up by 16% in 2018, and new electric car registrations went up by 11.4% compared to 2017.

The fact that government has announced plans to support sustainable automobile technology might tempt even more people into buying electric and hybrid cars during this year's Autofestival.