Europe's SUV sales boom despite flat market in 2018

European vehicle sales were flat at 15.54 million last year, but volumes of SUVs and crossovers of any size and price increased by 18 percent to
5.3 million, adding 800,000 annual sales to a sector that in 2017 had already grown by 18 percent -- or 700,000 units -- to 4.5 million.

The additional surge in demand meant that SUVs and crossovers grew to one-third of total European sales, rising to a 34.3 percent share, up from 29.4 percent in 2017 and 25.6 percent in 2016, figures from market researcher JATO Dynamics show.

Minivans were the biggest losers, with sales down by 273,000 in 2018.

The individual segment that suffered the highest volume decline, however, was compact cars, which dropped by 244,611 as customers moved to SUVs and crossovers.  

Volume and premium midsize sedans had another bad year, losing a combined 171,800 sales in 2018, which caused both segments to slip below half a million sales for the year.

A closer look at the seven SUV and crossover segments that Automotive News Europe monitors using JATO data shows that the small SUV sector, led by the Renault Captur, is close to overtaking the compact SUV segment, topped by the Nissan Qashqai, for overall leadership in SUV sales in Europe.

Last year, small SUV sales grew 37 percent to 1.83 million units while the compact SUV sector was up 12 percent to 1.88 million. The sales gap separating the segments narrowed to roughly 56,000 units last year from about 348,000 in 2017.

The Nissan Qashqai was hard pressed to defend its title as Europe’s best-selling crossover. With sales down by 6.3 percent to 233,026, the Qashqai prevailed over the Volkswagen Tiguan by just 8,238 units. The real winner in the compact crossover sector was the Peugeot 3008.

Sales of the 3008 grew by 26 percent to 204,197, making it the third model to surpass the 200,000-annual-sales plateau in this segment. In the small SUV segment sales of the sector-leading Renault Captur grew marginally to 214,720 last year followed by the Dacia Duster, which moved into second place because of a 22 percent increase to 182,000.

The Duster surpassed the Peugeot 2008, which was flat at 180,204 sales and ended the year at No. 3. In its first full year of availability, the VW T-Roc registered 143,319 sales, which was good enough for fourth place in the small SUV sector.

The Peugeot 5008 built a comfortable lead in the midsized SUV segment as the French SUV’s sales grew by 88 percent to 79,772. The Skoda Kodiaq, up 24 percent, held on to its second-place ranking (66,214), while the 2017 leader of the segment, the Nissan X-Trail, was down by 31 percent, sliding to third place in the ranking of midsize SUVs. Moving from mass market to premium SUVs, the Mercedes-Benz GLC, with sales of 96,966, dethroned the Volvo XC60 (80,753) to finish 2018 as Europe’s No. 1 premium midsize SUV. The BMW 1 and the X5 comfortably kept their leads in compact premium and large premium SUV segments, respectively.