Sales of compact cars in Europe were down 26% in the first quarter of 2022, double the decline of the overall market down 13%. The segment now makes up just 12.9% of the European car market, down 2.4 percentage points from 15.3% in the same period of 2021. After dropping from second to fourth place among segments last year, compact cars are quickly losing ground further this year.
The Volkswagen Golf maintains is position as Europe’s best selling compact car, even though it starts the year once again away from the overall leadership it’s been holding for ages. At -21%, the Golf actually manages to improve its share of the class to 13.4%. In second place we find the Toyota Corolla with sales down 7%, which will be a new ranking record for any Japanese compact car if it can hold this position till the end of the year. That knocks the Skoda Octavia down into 3rd place with a 41% decline in deliveries. The Kia Ceed is up to fourth place among mainstream compact cars as the best performer in the overall top-6 with sales up an impressive 36% and adding almost 3 percentage points of share. The Ceed leapfrogs the Ford Focus (-24%). The Citroën C4 enters the top-8, outselling the Seat Leon which sees its deliveries almost cut in half. The Renault Megane drops by more than half and is now outsold by the Hyundai i30 which sees almost stable deliveries. The Volkswagen ID.3 loses share at -30% and is outperformed but not outsold by the Nissan Leaf (-15%). With a new generation only just in showrooms, the Opel/Vauxhall Astra is down 44% while its sibling Peugeot 308 does even worse at -78% at #20, dropping behind the Mazda3 (-4%). The Fiat Tipo and Hyundai Ioniq lose about half their respective sales, while the two electric models Cupra Born and MG5 are growing but remain niche players for now with 0.6% share of the class each. We welcome the Renault Megane-e to the charts at #32 overall.
The luxury part of the segment accounts for 25.4% of total compact car sales in Europe, down 0.7 percentage points on the first quarter of 2021. The Mercedes-Benz A-Class loses its crown with sales down 34%, falling behind the Audi A3 which reclaims the luxury leadership thanks to sales down just 9%. It climbs to an overall 4th place, making it three VW Group nameplates in the top-4. The BMW 1-Series loses more than half of its sales and drops to #9 overall, while its siblings BMW 2-Series Coupe & Convertible also lost almost half of their sales at -43% in 18th place. In contrast, the Mercedes-Benz CLA gains share at -19% and moves to #11. We welcome the DS4 to the charts at #22, while the Mini Clubman outperforms its rivals at -9% at #24.
| Compact segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 share | 2021 share | |
| 1 | Volkswagen Golf | 46.175 | 58.342 | -21% | 13,4% | 12,5% |
| 2 | Toyota Corolla | 33.530 | 36.156 | -7% | 9,7% | 7,7% |
| 3 | Skoda Octavia | 27.095 | 46.165 | -41% | 7,9% | 9,9% |
| 4 | Audi A3 / S3 / RS3 | 26.516 | 29.188 | -9% | 7,7% | 6,3% |
| 5 | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 22.897 | 34.937 | -34% | 6,6% | 7,5% |
| 6 | Kia Ceed | 21.190 | 15.596 | 36% | 6,2% | 3,3% |
| 7 | Ford Focus | 21.084 | 27.771 | -24% | 6,1% | 5,9% |
| 8 | Citroën C4 | 16.784 | 11.056 | 52% | 4,9% | 2,4% |
| 9 | BMW 1-series | 13.984 | 28.515 | -51% | 4,1% | 6,1% |
| 10 | Seat Leon | 12.544 | 23.722 | -47% | 3,6% | 5,1% |
| 11 | Mercedes-Benz CLA | 11.880 | 14.647 | -19% | 3,4% | 3,1% |
| 12 | Hyundai i30 | 11.448 | 11.518 | -1% | 3,3% | 2,5% |
| 13 | Renault Megane | 9.220 | 20.440 | -55% | 2,7% | 4,4% |
| 14 | Skoda Scala | 8.447 | 10.141 | -17% | 2,5% | 2,2% |
| 15 | Volkswagen ID.3 | 8.353 | 11.983 | -30% | 2,4% | 2,6% |
| 16 | Opel/Vauxhall Astra | 8.263 | 14.819 | -44% | 2,4% | 3,2% |
| 17 | Nissan Leaf | 6.868 | 8.048 | -15% | 2,0% | 1,7% |
| 18 | BMW 2-series Coupe & Convertible | 5.506 | 9.672 | -43% | 1,6% | 2,1% |
| 19 | Mazda3 | 4.784 | 4.967 | -4% | 1,4% | 1,1% |
| 20 | Peugeot 308 | 4.547 | 20.940 | -78% | 1,3% | 4,5% |
| 21 | Fiat Tipo | 4.247 | 8.976 | -53% | 1,2% | 1,9% |
| 22 | DS4 | 3.570 | 0 | New | 1,0% | 0,0% |
| 23 | Hyundai Ioniq | 3.325 | 6.248 | -47% | 1,0% | 1,3% |
| 24 | Mini Clubman | 3.265 | 3.583 | -9% | 0,9% | 0,8% |
| 25 | Cupra Born | 2.059 | 1 | +++ | 0,6% | 0,0% |
| 26 | MG5 | 1.975 | 886 | 123% | 0,6% | 0,2% |
| 27 | Cupra Leon | 1.209 | 1.232 | -2% | 0,4% | 0,3% |
| 28 | Honda Civic | 1.184 | 2.853 | -58% | 0,3% | 0,6% |
| 29 | Suzuki Swace | 1.021 | 552 | 85% | 0,3% | 0,1% |
| 30 | Hyundai Elantra | 577 | 60 | 862% | 0,2% | 0,0% |
| 31 | Toyota Prius | 399 | 920 | -57% | 0,1% | 0,2% |
| 32 | Renault Megane e-tech | 192 | 0 | New | 0,1% | 0,0% |
| 33 | Subaru Impreza | 170 | 173 | -2% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 34 | Peugeot 301 | 116 | 164 | -29% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 35 | Citroën C-Elysee | 14 | 333 | -96% | 0,0% | 0,1% |
| 36 | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 12 | 1.534 | -99% | 0,0% | 0,3% |
| 37 | Volvo V40 | 1 | 3 | -67% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 38 | Opel Ampera-e | 1 | 61 | -98% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| Segment total | 344.452 | 466.940 | -26% |
Car sales statistics are from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
Sources: Manufacturers, ANDC, JATO Dynamics.