Sales of Premium Large SUVs in the US rose by 10 percent in the second quarter of 2016, exactly the same rate of growth as in the first quarter. What is impressive is that for all the trend in downsizing, this is exactly the same rate of growth as that recorded by the Premium Mid-sized SUV segment, and only a bit slower than the Premium Compact SUV segment.
Highlights in first half of 2016:
- The new Lexus RX is doing very well, and opened up a huge lead to the rest of the segment; in fact, in the first half of the year it outsold the second-placed Mercedes-Benz GLE almost two-to-one
- Acura MDX and BMW X5 both lost a lot of volume compared to the first half of 2015, and were passed by the GLE in the rankings
- Sales of the refreshed Infiniti QX60 did even better than the new Lexus RX, up by 18 percent and just a few thousand units behind the X5
- The new Volvo XC90, Lincoln MKX and Audi Q7 all saw huge sales gains (especially the XC90), passing many older models in the rankings
- The new Tesla Model X, which technically belongs in the Alternative Power segment but is presented here for comparison, did well-enough to rank in 19th place, out-selling the likes of BMW X6 in the process
Note: “AP” designates models that are classified in the Alternative Power segment, presented here for comparison; clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off