European sales 2016 Q1 Minicar segment

Bart Demandt
Car Sales EuropeEurope Minicar Segment
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Minicar-segment-European-sales-2016_Q1-Fiat_Panda-Fiat_500-Volkswagen_UpThe minicar segment in Europe grows at half the pace of the overall market, at +4% in the first quarter of 2016. The two Italian segment leaders grow faster than the rest of the segment on average and boost their share from 26,4% to 29%, helped by the strong recovery of their home market so far this year. The Fiat Panda has overtaken the Fiat 500 to reclaim its leadership thanks to a very strong first two months, but I don’t think it will hold on to that lead until the end of the year, as the 500 has proven very strong, even though its facelift last year was only minor. The Volkswagen Up! loses 12% but holds on to its third place as last year’s closest rival Renault Twingo loses a painful 22% and drops to sixth place.

Note: clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off

Toyota-Aygo-new_generation-auto-sales-statistics-EuropeFourth place is now occupied by the new generation Toyota Aygo, ahead of the Hyundai i10. The last remaining Lancia, now only sold in Italy shows its survival instinct with sales up 17%, also helped by the strong Italian market. The Yp is under threat from the Opel Karl / Vauxhall Viva duo, which after a slow start finally took off in March. That moved them past the other two Kolin sisters, the Peugeot 108 and Citroën C1, the latter of which is the only of the triplets not to lose volume on last year. The Smart Fortwo loses the top-10 position it held for the full-year 2015 but gains 32% on the model changeover last year, while the Forfour is stable.

The Ford Ka is the biggest loser of the top-20 as Ford will slowly phase out the model for which no third generation is planned. The Skoda Citigo is relatively stable but far behind its sibling Up! while the third triplet Seat Mii loses 19% and drops even further behind. The Suzuki Celerio shows nice growth compared to its first full quarter of sales, but remains a niche player and is unable to offset the sales lost from the discontinuation of the Alto. Suzuki will introduce a second minicar later this year, resurrecting the Ignis name. The Ignis will be a more trendy car aimed at younger buyers, so let’s see if the Japanese minicar specialist can return to some of its former glory.

Also check out the minicar segment in the US where the Mitsubishi Mirage climbs to second place behind the Mini Cooper.

Minicar segment 2016 Q1 2015 Q1 Change
1 Fiat Panda 56.351 46.065 22%
2 Fiat 500 53.327 50.244 6%
3 Volkswagen Up! 25.742 29.221 -12%
4 Toyota Aygo 23.712 24.521 -3%
5 Hyundai i10 21.951 23.634 -7%
6 Renault Twingo 21.662 27.642 -22%
7 Lancia/Chrysler Ypsilon 19.771 16.959 17%
8 Opel Karl / Vauxhall Viva 19.602 31 New
9 Peugeot 108 18.961 21.154 -10%
10 Citroën C1 18.322 18.175 1%
11 Smart Fortwo 16.652 12.602 32%
12 Kia Picanto 15.034 15.107 0%
13 Opel/Vauxhall Adam 14.200 15.046 -6%
14 Smart Forfour 10.816 10.791 0%
15 Ford Ka 10.409 14.584 -29%
16 Skoda Citigo 9.390 9.536 -2%
17 Mitsubishi Space Star / Mirage 7.647 8.515 -10%
18 Suzuki Celerio 7.485 4.832 55%
19 Seat Mii 5.322 6.570 -19%
20 Peugeot iOn 561 263 113%
21 Citroën C-Zero 418 168 149%
22 Chevrolet Spark 79 192 -59%
23 Mitsubishi Attrage 73 159 -54%
24 Mitsubishi i-MiEV 68 198 -66%
25 Suzuki Splash 7 1.756 -100%
26 Opel/Vauxhall Agila 6 1.550 -100%
27 Tata Indica 3 21 -86%
28 Toyota iQ 2 74 -97%
29 Peugeot 107 1 57 -98%
30 Suzuki Alto 1 5.139 -100%
Segment total 377.575 364.806 4%
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Bart Demandt
Bart is a 36-year old Dutchman who's always had a thing for cars, the automotive industry and statistics. He’s combined these passions by writing about them on CarSalesBase.com. His daily driver is an Alfa Romeo GT 3.2 V6 which he just can't seem to say goodbye to thanks to the mesmerizing exhaust note, despite approaching 300.000km which probably makes this the most experienced GT 3.2 in the world. You can find all his articles Here.
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13 Comments

  1. Absolute domination here for the italian automakers.Other interesting thing is the rising sales of electric cars in that segment.Maybe EV for now is more competitive on that segment compared with the others.

    Reply

    1. I think the iOn and C-Zero are being price dumped as PSA still has a lot of them in stock after they initially agreed to buy 100.000 of them from Mitsubishi. That’s also why the i-MiEV itself is down: Mitsubishi doesn’t want to produce it anymore, so it can free up battery capacity to build Outlander PHEVs.

      Reply

  2. Really interesting posts..i look forward to them..its fascinating that what are slow sellers here in UK are hits elsewhere and vice versa

    Reply

  3. Thank Bart!You information is highly informative.Do you have an information about the African’s markets and their sales and future?

    Reply

    1. Hi Phil, thanks for your compliment. And you too, David.
      Regarding your question about Africa, that kind of information is incredibly difficult to find. Besides that, the market for used cars imported from Europe and Asia is still larger than most new-car markets in Sub-Sahara Africa at the moment. However, I am indeed working on expanding our database an on something that may interest you. It should be ready by summer, so just a little more patience, please (-:

      Reply

  4. Disappointing to see Twingo sales start to fall so soon after launch, but i guess the plattform sharing with Smart/MB is starting to show its limitations. The Twingo may be cute, but it lost a lot of the practicality and simple charm that made the last 2 gens successful, even with just 3 doors 🙁

    Reply

  5. It’s incredible how Fiat can have such a strong dominance of this segment with a model that is nearly 10 years old and with the Panda.
    When they replace the 500 I think they’ll bring a plug-in hybrid or an electric version. But it’s still going strong so I think it won’t be replaced for another two years at least.

    Also, congratulations to Opel by following a strategy similar to Fiat of having a rational and an emotional model. The Opel Adam sales were barely affected by the release of the Karl. Meaning they duplicated their market share in this segment with two models with very distinct philosophy.

    Reply

    1. Hey,

      The Panda isn’t that old, it was replaced by the second Generation in 2012. But of course, it is very impressing, how one single brand can have nearly 30% market share.

      And I don’t really expect an electric version of the 500 in the next years. Marchionne said in USA, that that he doesn’t want the electric 500 to be sold well, because it is too expensive for Fiat. I think, Marchionne is so pragmatic, that he will only bring an electric car, when he can earn money with it, but in this segment this is very hard.

      @Opel:

      I like the Adam very much, and here in Germany, you see it every day a few times, and the Karl in my opinion offers the best car for the price, especially compared to the VW Up, but the Karl isn’t very popular here, I’m afraid.

      Reply

      1. This is normal for me.The italian market is the largest for small segment and a little bit chauvinism help to the italian brands.The information for Germany is interesting.Because in my opinion german market is not the best for the small cars segment. Mr.Demandt can done if he has the information about the sales of Karl,Adam.But i think that the good sales for Karl are thanks to the good sales of Vauxhall Viva in the UK thanks to the local manufacturing.

      2. That’s right Phil: In Germany, the Adam sells more than twice as good as the Karl, while in the UK it’s the other way around: the Viva sells more than twice as good as the Adam. 32% of the European volume of the Karl/Viva is registered in the UK (the Viva itself is not manufactured locally, but rather by GM Daewoo in South-Korea), while Germans buy 40% of total European Adam sales.
        In comparison: 78% of Panda volume is sold in Italy, but “only” 30% of the 500 (and another 22% in the UK).

  6. Not so bad.Look at the twingo’s table for sales here in this site the last month the sales is almost the same like in the 2015.The sales of twingo will stabilize.Twingo has great potential with that rwd.If Renault manufacture Rs version with 200-250 hp that will be great!And the co-platform with Mercedes save money.And the lot of twingo’s buyers convert to small Suv class were the leader from long time ago is the bestseler Renault Capture.

    Reply

  7. @Phil The Twingo will top out at around 110hp with the upcoming GT version, and i have serious doubts that that many people go from a Twingo to a Captur. The Twingo is the type of car people downsize to, a 2nd or 3rd car. People who look at the Captur either come from/ are looking at Clios or downsizing from Meganes.

    And saving money is fine and all, but it looks like the Twingo 3 will be below 100k units again this year. The unloved Twingo 2 managed 170k in its first full year, and stayed above 100k for 4 years, while being based on a well proven ( and i’m guessing payed for, thus profitable ) Renault platform.

    Reply

    1. Hi tuga
      Don’t forget the fact that the predecessor of the Captur is Modus.And the Modus is in the segment of small MPV’s.So i think that has a logic for some people to change Twingo for small MPV like Modus but now on the place of that small MPV is the small SUV segment(for Renault) like Captur.I know for 110 hp version for the Twingo but i speak theoretically.

      Reply

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