In the first nine months of 2022, the upper class segment is the only car (non-crossover) segment to improve at +12% in an overall market down 11%. Still, it remains a very small class with just 0.3% of total European car sales. In the third quarter, upper class sales were up 31% in a market down 2%.
Mercedes-Benz continues to dominate the class with its two sedans, taking 48.8% share of the segment, up from 36.1% last year. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class remains on top despite a 6% decline in deliveries, while the Mercedes-Benz EQS is firmly in second place. In the third quarter, the BMW 8-Series jumps into third place year-to-date despite a 27% drop in deliveries while its stablemate BMW 7-Series drops to fifth place as it’s due for a new generation. That keeps the Porsche Panamera in fourth place with sales down 5% and the Audi A8 is down 3% at #6. All nameplates outside of the top-6 are up on last year. The Bentley Flying Spur is up 45% while the new generation Rolls Royce Ghost helps the nameplate to increase its deliveries by 26%. The Rolls Royce Phantom also outperforms, more than doubling on last year, but remains a niche player. We welcome the all-electric version of the 7-Series as a standalone model BMW i7 to the charts. It immediately moves ahead of the Lexus LS and Maserati Quattroporte and pushes the EV share of the class to 20.1%, a figure that is likely to continue to grow.
| Upper class | 2022 Q1-Q3 | 2021 Q1-Q3 | Change | 2022 share | 2022-Q3 | Change | |
| 1 | Mercedes-Benz S-Class | 8.221 | 8.715 | -6% | 29,2% | 2.916 | 11% |
| 2 | Mercedes-Benz EQS | 5.511 | 375 | 1370% | 19,6% | 2.077 | 1122% |
| 3 | BMW 8-series | 3.664 | 4.994 | -27% | 13,0% | 1.389 | 9% |
| 4 | Porsche Panamera | 3.641 | 3.848 | -5% | 12,9% | 1.259 | 10% |
| 5 | BMW 7-series | 3.622 | 4.052 | -11% | 12,9% | 972 | -18% |
| 6 | Audi A8 / S8 | 2.382 | 2.467 | -3% | 8,5% | 741 | -7% |
| 7 | Bentley Flying Spur | 507 | 350 | 45% | 1,8% | 138 | 10% |
| 8 | Rolls Royce Ghost | 182 | 145 | 26% | 0,6% | 65 | 10% |
| 9 | BMW i7 | 157 | 0 | New | 0,6% | 157 | New |
| 10 | Lexus LS | 107 | 100 | 7% | 0,4% | 40 | -5% |
| 11 | Maserati Quattroporte | 92 | 88 | 5% | 0,3% | 29 | -31% |
| 12 | Rolls Royce Phantom | 66 | 32 | 106% | 0,2% | 19 | 46% |
| 13 | Bentley Mulsanne | 0 | 18 | -100% | 0,0% | 0 | -100% |
| 14 | Jaguar XJ | 0 | 8 | -100% | 0,0% | 0 | -100% |
| Segment total | 28.152 | 25.192 | 12% | 9.802 | 31% |
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.