The midsized car segment manages to beat the overall US passenger car market in the first quarter of 2022. At nearly 300,000 deliveries, midsized car sales are down 14% on last year while the overall market is down 16%. As a result, the midsized class slightly improves its share of the class by 0.1 percentage points to 9%.
The Toyota Camry starts off where it spent the last 20 years: as America’s best selling midsized sedan. However, with deliveries down 21% it’s losing share of the class. The #2 Honda Accord is down 10% but still almost 20,000 deliveries behind. The Accord is under threat from the Tesla Model 3, up 74% on last year and taking a 13.4% share as the most popular luxury midsized sedan. We also see a nice uptick in deliveries for the Nissan Altima, up 20% in fourth place to distance the Chevrolet Malibu, down 5%. The Kia K5 is down 13% to outsell its sibling Hyundai Sonata which is down 62% on last year. The Sonata was the #5 seller overall in the class last year, but has dropped to 9th place so far this year. A 12% decline for the Subaru Legacy helps it slightly improve its share, while the Kia Stinger in 15th place overall is up 27%. Sales of the Volkswagen Passat are down by nearly half, while the Mazda6, Honda Clarity and Volkswagen Arteon are all but dead, losing 85% of their sales or more. They’re even outsold by the low-volume Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.
Luxury midsized models outperform their mainstream rivals at -1% as they now make up 31.4% of the midsize segment, up from 27.3% in Q1 of 2021. The Tesla Model 3 is the best performing nameplate in the class at +74%, followed by the BMW 4-Series and Genesis G70, both improving 54%. The Lexus ES is down 1% so far this year, consolidating its #2 spot as the BMW 3-Series is down 13% and sales of the former #4 among luxury models Mercedes-Benz C-Class have come to a halt as it’s in the middle of a model changeover. The Lexus IS is down 26% but stays ahead of the Audi A4 (-24%) and A5 (-15%). Sales of the Acura TLX are cut in half as it barely manages to stay ahead of the Genesis G70 and Volvo 60 Series. The Infiniti Q50 is also almost down by half but falls behind those two. The Cadillac CT4 has not managed to break through and remains a niche model at #21 overall with 0.6% share of the class. At least it outsells the Alfa Romeo Giulia.
US midsized car sales 2022-Q1
| Midsized segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 Share | 2021 Share | |
| 1 | Toyota Camry | 61.505 | 78.151 | -21% | 20,6% | 22,4% |
| 2 | Honda Accord | 42.039 | 46.591 | -10% | 14,1% | 13,4% |
| 3 | Tesla Model 3 (est.) | 40.200 | 23.110 | 74% | 13,4% | 6,6% |
| 4 | Nissan Altima | 38.295 | 32.017 | 20% | 12,8% | 9,2% |
| 5 | Chevrolet Malibu | 25.682 | 26.987 | -5% | 8,6% | 7,7% |
| 6 | Kia K5 | 17.822 | 20.378 | -13% | 6,0% | 5,8% |
| 7 | Lexus ES | 10.051 | 10.192 | -1% | 3,4% | 2,9% |
| 8 | BMW 3-series | 8.156 | 9.426 | -13% | 2,7% | 2,7% |
| 9 | Hyundai Sonata | 7.744 | 20.557 | -62% | 2,6% | 5,9% |
| 10 | BMW 4-series | 7.379 | 4.785 | 54% | 2,5% | 1,4% |
| 11 | Subaru Legacy | 5.520 | 6.305 | -12% | 1,8% | 1,8% |
| 12 | Lexus IS | 4.462 | 6.028 | -26% | 1,5% | 1,7% |
| 13 | Audi A4 / S4 | 3.853 | 5.071 | -24% | 1,3% | 1,5% |
| 14 | Audi A5 / S5 | 3.841 | 4.527 | -15% | 1,3% | 1,3% |
| 15 | Kia Stinger | 3.107 | 2.444 | 27% | 1,0% | 0,7% |
| 16 | Acura TLX | 2.991 | 6.141 | -51% | 1,0% | 1,8% |
| 17 | Genesis G70 | 2.873 | 1.864 | 54% | 1,0% | 0,5% |
| 18 | Volvo 60 series | 2.820 | 4.617 | -39% | 0,9% | 1,3% |
| 19 | Infiniti Q50 | 2.429 | 4.302 | -44% | 0,8% | 1,2% |
| 20 | Volkswagen Passat | 2.345 | 4.535 | -48% | 0,8% | 1,3% |
| 21 | Cadillac CT4 | 1.893 | 2.627 | -28% | 0,6% | 0,8% |
| 22 | Alfa Romeo Giulia | 1.145 | 2.065 | -45% | 0,4% | 0,6% |
| 23 | Infiniti Q60 | 768 | 686 | 12% | 0,3% | 0,2% |
| 24 | Toyota Mirai | 715 | 869 | -18% | 0,2% | 0,2% |
| 25 | Mercedes-Benz C-Class | 494 | 7.696 | -94% | 0,2% | 2,2% |
| 26 | Lexus RC | 461 | 777 | -41% | 0,2% | 0,2% |
| 27 | Mazda6 | 325 | 4.285 | -92% | 0,1% | 1,2% |
| 28 | Honda Clarity | 154 | 1.147 | -87% | 0,1% | 0,3% |
| 29 | Volkswagen Arteon | 47 | 1.099 | -96% | 0,0% | 0,3% |
| 30 | Jaguar XE | 10 | 94 | -89% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 31 | Chrysler 200 | 2 | 1 | 100% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 32 | Buick Regal | 1 | 18 | -94% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 33 | Volkswagen CC | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 34 | Ford Fusion | 0 | 7.889 | -100% | 0,0% | 2,3% |
| 35 | Lincoln MKZ | 0 | 1.238 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,4% |
| Segment total | 299.130 | 348.520 | -14% |
Source: Manufacturers.