Mid-Size SUVs Have Double-Digit Growth in Down European Car Market

The European auto industry reported an 8% decrease in sales last year, but that was not spread equally among all automotive segments. While most segments saw declines, some in the double digits, mid-size SUVs bucked the trend and had significant growth. 

In the premium mid-size SUV segment, sales were up 24% to over 407,000 cars, and normal mid-size SUVs had a 15% gain to nearly 673,000 cars. The leaders in the premium mid-size SUV market were the Audi Q3Audi Q3Germany, 2011 > present66 versions
147 photos
and BMW X3BMW X3 Gen.2Germany, 2010 > present26 versions
62 photos
that both had around 70,000 sales. The mid-size SUV market was dominated by the VW TiguanVolkswagen Tiguan Gen.1Germany, 2007 > 2015132 versions
295 photos
with 150,000 units sold significantly more than the second place Hyundai ix35Hyundai ix35Republic of Korea, 2009 > present56 versions
100 photos
with 87,000 units sold.

Compare this to usually strong markets like mid-size cars and compacts that had sales decreases of 13% and 12%, respectively. However, both had higher sales than SUVs in terms of units. 

The only two other segments to see gains were premium compact cars like the BMW 1 SeriesBMW 1 Series Gen.2 [F20] Germany, 2011 > present130 versions
247 photos
that were up 9%, and electric cars, which were up 64%, with nearly 18,000 cars sold. While these results seem impressive for electric cars, keep in my the GolfVolkswagen Volkswagen Golf Gen.7 [VII]Germany, 2012 > present363 versions
458 photos
alone sold over 400,000 units, which means that all of the electric cars sold in Europe last year amount to less than 5% of Golf sales. 

Source: Automotive News Europe