Sales of subcompact SUVs and crossovers continue booming in the US, almost doubling its sales to 183,758 units in the first half of 2016. While the growth rate in the second quarter, 50 percent, was not as impressive as the 162 percent growth rate the segment recorded in the first quarter, it still made it the fastest-growing segment by a mile – the second-fastest growing segment, Minivans, grew by 25 percent by comparison, while the market overall grew by only 1 percent over the first half of the year.
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Highlights for first half of 2016:
- Jeep Renegade is now the undisputed sales champion of the segment, selling over 25 percent more cars than the second-placed model
- Speaking of second place, the new Honda HR-V managed to steal away second place from the former segment leader Buick Encore by a mere 22 units
- Nissan Juke continues in the ignominious position of being the only car in the segment to lose volume since 2015, with sales down 14 percent – the new model can’t come soon enough
- As time goes on it is becoming clear that Mazda CX-3 hit a sales ceiling early and low – at around 5,000 units per quarter, which will surely come as a huge disappointment to Mazda
- Still, it is doing better than Fiat 500X, whose sales in both quarters in 2016 so far have been lower than in Q4 2015, and only about 15 percent of those achieved by the Fiat’s more rugged Jeep Renegade cousin, even though the model is only one year old; at least it is doing better in Europe, with quarterly sales that are five times higher