Subcompact car sales are down 17% in the first three quarters of 2022, in an overall market down 11%. The segment has long been Europe’s largest segment by volume, but in 2021 they were outsold for the first time ever by small crossovers. And so far in 2022, subcompact cars have also been outsold by the compact crossover class. Subcompacts now make up 16.7% of the total market, down from 17.9% last year. In the third quarter of 2022, subcompact cars were down 4%, in an overall market down 2%.
The Peugeot 208 still leads the segment after nine months and has a comfortable lead of 11,000 deliveries over the Dacia Sandero, as both models improve on last year. In the third quarter the Toyota Yaris was on the podium and closing in on a top-3 finish of the year, but for now the Opel/Vauxhall Corsa is still ahead. The Citroën C3 manages to perform very strong despite being one of the older models in the top of the ranking. In Q3, the C3 was up 22% on last year. In contrast, former class leader Renault Clio continues to struggle with a 25% drop in Q3 and sales down by 35% so far this year. The Volkswagen Polo doesn’t do much better at -28% but at least it outsold the Clio in the third quarter. Another former class leader Ford Fiesta is in a similar predicament at -37% and in danger of dropping out of the top-10. Especially now that Ford has announced that the Fiesta will not be continued beyond the current generation, there’s not much hope for a recovery by the nameplate. Other models in difficulty this year are the Seat Ibiza (-44%), Renault Zoe (-41%) and Suzuki Swift (-52%). All three saw their sales cut by more than half in the third quarter of 2022.
The luxury part of the segment accounts for 10.8% of subcompact car sales in Europe, up 0.7 percentage points on the first thee quarters of 2021 with sales down 11%. Not all three nameplates share this gain equally. The Mini stays firmly in control, taking an 8th place overall thanks to stable sales, adding 1 percentage point of share. The Audi A1 is down 30% but was outsold in the third quarter by the Lancia Ypsilon (-12%) which is now just 1,500 deliveries behind.
| Subcompact segment | 2022 Q1-Q3 | 2021 Q1-Q3 | Change | 2022 share | 2022-Q3 | Change | |
| 1 | Peugeot 208 | 161.252 | 146.844 | 10% | 11,9% | 51.546 | 55% |
| 2 | Dacia Sandero | 150.016 | 148.260 | 1% | 11,1% | 50.335 | -5% |
| 3 | Opel/Vauxhall Corsa | 127.582 | 145.696 | -12% | 9,4% | 39.758 | 8% |
| 4 | Toyota Yaris | 122.690 | 156.242 | -21% | 9,1% | 46.207 | 7% |
| 5 | Citroën C3 | 108.640 | 123.377 | -12% | 8,0% | 36.108 | 22% |
| 6 | Renault Clio | 97.218 | 150.390 | -35% | 7,2% | 28.506 | -25% |
| 7 | Volkswagen Polo | 89.059 | 123.427 | -28% | 6,6% | 32.123 | -20% |
| 8 | Mini | 83.011 | 83.076 | 0% | 6,1% | 25.654 | 7% |
| 9 | Skoda Fabia | 65.103 | 72.503 | -10% | 4,8% | 22.295 | -3% |
| 10 | Ford Fiesta | 49.872 | 79.736 | -37% | 3,7% | 18.204 | 13% |
| 11 | Hyundai i20 | 46.124 | 47.844 | -4% | 3,4% | 17.086 | 9% |
| 12 | Audi A1 | 32.647 | 46.927 | -30% | 2,4% | 9.441 | 2% |
| 13 | Seat Ibiza | 32.528 | 58.384 | -44% | 2,4% | 6.498 | -57% |
| 14 | Lancia Ypsilon | 31.145 | 35.403 | -12% | 2,3% | 9.637 | 18% |
| 15 | Renault Zoe | 27.431 | 46.299 | -41% | 2,0% | 6.684 | -55% |
| 16 | Kia Rio | 25.869 | 26.340 | -2% | 1,9% | 8.131 | -6% |
| 17 | Nissan Micra | 24.931 | 29.337 | -15% | 1,8% | 6.885 | -25% |
| 18 | Suzuki Swift | 23.442 | 49.055 | -52% | 1,7% | 7.722 | -51% |
| 19 | Honda Jazz | 18.205 | 23.814 | -24% | 1,3% | 6.527 | -32% |
| 20 | Mazda2 | 16.754 | 15.207 | 10% | 1,2% | 6.319 | 16% |
| 21 | Dacia Logan | 9.229 | 11.843 | -22% | 0,7% | 2.717 | -57% |
| 22 | Fiat 500L | 6.343 | 15.449 | -59% | 0,5% | 519 | -88% |
| 23 | MG3 | 3.876 | 1.655 | 134% | 0,3% | 1.312 | 172% |
| 24 | Honda e | 1.714 | 2.281 | -25% | 0,1% | 338 | -61% |
| Segment total | 1.354.681 | 1.639.389 | -17% | 440.552 | -4% |
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.