The large car segment continues to trail the overall European car market in the first three quarters of 2022 at -16% vs -11%. They now hold a share of just 1.7% of the total market, down from 1.8% in the same period last year. In the third quarter, large car sales were down just 1%, slightly outperforming the overall market at -2%. A slew of all-electric models is ready to storm the charts in coming years to take over control from the traditional leaders.
If the Mercedes-Benz E-Class was the best seller in the second quarter, it drops back into third place in Q3. It holds on to its second spot year-to-date, but less than 800 deliveries ahead of the Audi A6. Meanwhile the BMW 5-Series is heading for an easy class victory in 2022, thanks to sales down just 10% so far this year and increasing its share of the class to 26.6%. The A6 is the worst performing nameplate in the top-8 at -30% so far this year, but it showed a hopeful recovery in Q3 when i was down just 4%. The traditional top-3 has a share of the class of 71%, which is down from 75.7% last year. Part of this can be attributed to Mercedes-Benz making its all-electric model a standalone nameplate and not a version of the E-Class. The Mercedes-Benz EQE is up to an overall 6th place, outselling its rival Audi e-Tron GT and almost matching the sales of the Porsche Taycan in Q3. Thanks to these three models, EVs now make up 15.1% of the large car segment, a percentage that will continue to grow. Best of the rest is still the Volvo S90/V90, despite a 28% drop in deliveries. The Lexus ES is down 35% at #9, while the DS9 is unable to crack the top-10 because the Mercedes-Benz CLS is up 21% so far this year. There’s a second Chinese EV in the ranking to join the Xpeng P7 as we welcome the NIO ET7 with its first 81 registrations. That helps it immediately outsell the Genesis G80 in the third quarter.
| Large car segment | 2022 Q1-Q3 | 2021 Q1-Q3 | Change | 2022 share | 2022-Q3 | Change | |
| 1 | BMW 5-series | 37.446 | 41.667 | -10% | 26,6% | 12.931 | 10% |
| 2 | Mercedes-Benz E-Class | 31.695 | 41.524 | -24% | 22,5% | 9.098 | -3% |
| 3 | Audi A6 / S6 / RS6 / Allroad | 30.919 | 44.385 | -30% | 21,9% | 10.496 | -4% |
| 4 | Porsche Taycan | 11.458 | 10.295 | 11% | 8,1% | 2.467 | -25% |
| 5 | Volvo S90/V90 | 9.287 | 12.864 | -28% | 6,6% | 2.387 | -15% |
| 6 | Mercedes-Benz EQE | 5.160 | 160 | 3125% | 3,7% | 2.415 | 1409% |
| 7 | Audi e-Tron GT | 4.375 | 3.525 | 24% | 3,1% | 860 | -46% |
| 8 | Audi A7 / S7 / RS7 | 2.774 | 3.903 | -29% | 2,0% | 752 | -33% |
| 9 | Lexus ES | 2.413 | 3.693 | -35% | 1,7% | 647 | -42% |
| 10 | Mercedes-Benz CLS | 1.870 | 1.545 | 21% | 1,3% | 467 | 24% |
| 11 | DS9 | 1.025 | 658 | 56% | 0,7% | 302 | -4% |
| 12 | Maserati Ghibli | 753 | 1.093 | -31% | 0,5% | 200 | -45% |
| 13 | BMW 6-series | 735 | 1.010 | -27% | 0,5% | 232 | -16% |
| 14 | Jaguar XF | 401 | 1.576 | -75% | 0,3% | 60 | -83% |
| 15 | Xpeng P7 | 241 | 0 | New | 0,2% | 58 | New |
| 16 | Genesis G80 | 190 | 90 | 111% | 0,1% | 74 | 57% |
| 17 | Dodge Charger | 105 | 147 | -29% | 0,1% | 38 | -27% |
| 18 | Nio ET7 | 81 | 0 | New | 0,1% | 81 | New |
| 19 | Polestar 1 | 68 | 51 | 33% | 0,0% | 13 | -35% |
| 20 | Tesla Model S | 28 | 451 | -94% | 0,0% | 10 | -93% |
| Segment total | 141.024 | 168.637 | -16% | 43.588 | -1% |
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.