Subcompact cars have long been Europe’s largest segment by volume, but in 2021 they were outsold for the first time ever by small crossovers. And with sales down 21% in the first quarter of 2022 in an overall market down 13%, subcompact cars only narrowly outsell the compact crossover class. Subcompacts now make up 16.6% of the total market, down from 18.4% last year.
Like last year, the Peugeot 208 starts the year in the lead and it even manages to improve its share of the class thanks to sales down 16%. However, its advantage over the #2 has been cut to just 1,000 deliveries as the Dacia Sandero is up 13%. With sales down 20%, the Citroën C3 jumps onto the podium, while the Opel/Vauxhall Corsa makes it three Stellantis nameplates in the top-4 despite a 30% decline in deliveries. Traditional class leader Renault Clio is down 28% into 5th place, just ahead of the Toyota Yaris, the worst performing nameplate in the top-8 at -37%. The Ford Fiesta does even worse, losing more than half of its sales, falling behind the Volkswagen Polo and Skoda Fabia to complete the top-10. Just outside the top-10 is the Hyundai i20, beating the class and the overall market at -12%, leapfrogging the Seat Ibiza, down 32%. The Renault Zoe is down 19% but outsells the Suzuki Swift which loses almost half of its sales. The Kia Rio is one of the very few nameplates to improve on last year at +9%, passing the Nissan Micra (-19%). The Honda Jazz (+17%) and Mazda2 (+24%) also improve.
The luxury part of the segment accounts for 11.5% of subcompact car sales in Europe, up 1.6 percentage points on the first quarter of 2021 but not all three nameplates share this gain equally. The Mini stays firmly in control, taking a 7th place overall thanks to 14% more deliveries than last year, adding 2 percentage points of share. The Audi A1 is down 36% and is under threat from the Lancia Ypsilon, down 17% but fewer than 220 deliveries behind.
| Subcompact segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 share | 2021 share | |
| 1 | Peugeot 208 | 50.865 | 60.671 | -16% | 11,5% | 10,8% |
| 2 | Dacia Sandero | 49.851 | 44.168 | 13% | 11,2% | 7,8% |
| 3 | Citroën C3 | 38.361 | 48.219 | -20% | 8,6% | 8,6% |
| 4 | Opel/Vauxhall Corsa | 37.928 | 54.033 | -30% | 8,5% | 9,6% |
| 5 | Renault Clio | 37.094 | 51.780 | -28% | 8,4% | 9,2% |
| 6 | Toyota Yaris | 35.627 | 56.458 | -37% | 8,0% | 10,0% |
| 7 | Mini | 29.443 | 25.758 | 14% | 6,6% | 4,6% |
| 8 | Volkswagen Polo | 26.115 | 36.439 | -28% | 5,9% | 6,5% |
| 9 | Skoda Fabia | 19.595 | 22.543 | -13% | 4,4% | 4,0% |
| 10 | Ford Fiesta | 16.011 | 35.832 | -55% | 3,6% | 6,4% |
| 11 | Hyundai i20 | 12.942 | 14.653 | -12% | 2,9% | 2,6% |
| 12 | Seat Ibiza | 11.952 | 17.505 | -32% | 2,7% | 3,1% |
| 13 | Audi A1 | 10.988 | 17.057 | -36% | 2,5% | 3,0% |
| 14 | Lancia Ypsilon | 10.771 | 13.032 | -17% | 2,4% | 2,3% |
| 15 | Renault Zoe | 10.108 | 12.546 | -19% | 2,3% | 2,2% |
| 16 | Suzuki Swift | 8.593 | 16.282 | -47% | 1,9% | 2,9% |
| 17 | Kia Rio | 8.542 | 7.851 | 9% | 1,9% | 1,4% |
| 18 | Nissan Micra | 8.301 | 10.243 | -19% | 1,9% | 1,8% |
| 19 | Honda Jazz | 6.288 | 5.376 | 17% | 1,4% | 1,0% |
| 20 | Mazda2 | 5.536 | 4.468 | 24% | 1,2% | 0,8% |
| 21 | Fiat 500L | 3.394 | 5.128 | -34% | 0,8% | 0,9% |
| 22 | Dacia Logan | 2.895 | 2.020 | 43% | 0,7% | 0,4% |
| 23 | MG3 | 1.934 | 557 | 247% | 0,4% | 0,1% |
| 24 | Honda e | 588 | 491 | 20% | 0,1% | 0,1% |
| Segment total | 443.722 | 563.110 | -21% |
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.