Sales of compact cars in Europe are down 24% to 2.03 million in 2020, perfectly in line with the overall market. And while Europeans bought more small crossovers than compact cars in the first three quarters of the year, in the full-year score the pecking order is returned to “normal”, with an advantage of 17,000 sales for the compact class. This result is mostly due to a wave of VW ID.3 (self)registrations, especially in December. We expect small crossovers to become Europe’s #2 segment in 2021 by a large margin.
Europe’s best seller is obviously also still the segment leader, but the VW Golf is down 31% as the new generation arrived in showrooms this year. The biggest threat to the Golf is not from the other two podium finisher, but rather internally, with the ID.3 electric car hailed as VW’s third revolutionary model that will define the brand, after the original Beetle and the Golf. The electric Volkswagen was the #3 seller in Q4 of 2020, making the podium 100% VW Group, but keep in mind a lot of those ID.3 registrations were self-registrations of yet unsold cars, in order to reduce VW’s fleet CO2 emissions penalty. The Skoda Octavia outperforms the class at-17% thanks to the new generation, allowing it to leapfrog the Ford Focus.
The Toyota Corolla is the best performer in the top-10 thanks to sales up 3%, allowing it to move into an overall 5th place, ahead of the Seat Leon and Peugeot 308. Worst performers in the top-20 are the Opel/Vauxhall Astra (-48%) and Renault Megane (-42%), but the added plug-in hybrid version might boost the latter again in 2021. The Fiat Tipo (-37%) and Hyundai i30 (-33%) lose share, with the Skoda Scala moving inbetween them in its first full year of sales. The Nissan Leaf EV is almost stable at -2%, allowing it to move past the Mazda3 (-24%) and Honda Civic, which loses more than half of its sales in 2020 as a new generation is due in 2021.
We welcome the Suzuki Swace to the class this year, which is a rebadged version of the Toyota Corolla wagon hybrid. It had its first 2,263 registrations in the fourth quarter of the year. The Citroën C4 has been re-introduced as a hatchback crossover and is available with gasoline, diesel and electric powertrains. It lands at #27 just ahead of its sibling the C-Elysee sedan. Other important newcomers in 2021 are the new generation Peugeot 308 and Opel/Vauxhall Astra, as well as their luxury sibling DS4. The ID.3 will get a Spanish sibling with the Cupra El Born.
The luxury part of the segment accounts for 24.6% of total compact car sales in Europe, up 1.6 percentage points on 2019. The Mercedes-Benz A-Class improves its share and holds on to the #4 spot overall. The BMW 1-Series and Audi A3 also had a strong second half of the year and are down just 4% and -22% respectively on 2019. They moved into overall 7th and 8th place while outselling the Leon in Q4. The Mercedes-Benz CLA is up 9%, but the best performer in the class is the BMW 2-Series Coupe & Convertible thanks to the addition of the front-wheel drive Gran Coupe. The Mini Clubman loses share with a 29% decline. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Lexus CT and Volvo V40 have all been discontinued and replaced by crossover, which are currently in hotter demand than hatchbacks.
| Compact segment | 2020 | 2019 | Change | 2020 share | 2019 share | 2020-Q4 | |
| 1 | Volkswagen Golf | 285.013 | 410.779 | -31% | 14,1% | 15,5% | 81.890 |
| 2 | Skoda Octavia | 180.902 | 218.439 | -17% | 8,9% | 8,2% | 50.203 |
| 3 | Ford Focus | 173.853 | 224.401 | -23% | 8,6% | 8,5% | 44.042 |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 158.955 | 198.926 | -20% | 7,8% | 7,5% | 43.558 |
| 5 | Toyota Corolla | 137.209 | 133.597 | 3% | 6,8% | 5,0% | 34.994 |
| 6 | Seat Leon | 111.045 | 136.622 | -19% | 5,5% | 5,2% | 30.944 |
| 7 | BMW 1-series | 107.870 | 112.068 | -4% | 5,3% | 4,2% | 32.613 |
| 8 | Audi A3 / S3 / RS3 | 97.492 | 124.422 | -22% | 4,8% | 4,7% | 32.503 |
| 9 | Peugeot 308 | 90.324 | 141.060 | -36% | 4,5% | 5,3% | 24.561 |
| 10 | Renault Megane | 74.536 | 129.222 | -42% | 3,7% | 4,9% | 20.893 |
| 11 | Kia Ceed | 72.017 | 100.676 | -28% | 3,6% | 3,8% | 19.250 |
| 12 | Opel/Vauxhall Astra | 70.550 | 136.638 | -48% | 3,5% | 5,2% | 20.147 |
| 13 | Mercedes-Benz CLA | 67.319 | 61.958 | 9% | 3,3% | 2,3% | 17.737 |
| 14 | Volkswagen ID.3 | 54.495 | 0 | New | 2,7% | 0,0% | 45.924 |
| 15 | Fiat Tipo | 53.452 | 84.789 | -37% | 2,6% | 3,2% | 14.696 |
| 16 | Skoda Scala | 53.156 | 36.218 | 47% | 2,6% | 1,4% | 13.536 |
| 17 | Hyundai i30 | 50.483 | 75.739 | -33% | 2,5% | 2,9% | 12.760 |
| 18 | BMW 2-series Coupe & Convertible | 32.613 | 26.867 | 21% | 1,6% | 1,0% | 10.187 |
| 19 | Nissan Leaf | 31.177 | 31.792 | -2% | 1,5% | 1,2% | 10.551 |
| 20 | Mazda3 | 26.458 | 34.874 | -24% | 1,3% | 1,3% | 6.405 |
| 21 | Hyundai Ioniq | 26.254 | 31.978 | -18% | 1,3% | 1,2% | 6.123 |
| 22 | Honda Civic | 17.282 | 37.486 | -54% | 0,9% | 1,4% | 3.382 |
| 23 | Mini Clubman | 16.995 | 23.933 | -29% | 0,8% | 0,9% | 4.367 |
| 24 | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 10.817 | 15.690 | -31% | 0,5% | 0,6% | 3.492 |
| 25 | Toyota Prius | 4.605 | 7.455 | -38% | 0,2% | 0,3% | 1.020 |
| 26 | Lexus CT | 4.501 | 5.295 | -15% | 0,2% | 0,2% | 1.307 |
| 27 | Citroën C4 | 3.441 | 129 | 2567% | 0,2% | 0,0% | 3.133 |
| 28 | Citroën C-Elysee | 2.780 | 6.375 | -56% | 0,1% | 0,2% | 677 |
| 29 | Opel Ampera-e | 2.775 | 2.510 | 11% | 0,1% | 0,1% | 59 |
| 30 | Suzuki Swace | 2.263 | 0 | New | 0,1% | 0,0% | 2.263 |
| 31 | Volvo V40 | 1.860 | 38.795 | -95% | 0,1% | 1,5% | 36 |
| 32 | Hyundai Elantra | 1.003 | 1.779 | -44% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 52 |
| 33 | Peugeot 301 | 600 | 1.406 | -57% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 125 |
| 34 | Lada Vesta | 562 | 1.541 | -64% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 1 |
| 35 | Subaru Impreza | 514 | 1.464 | -65% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 152 |
| 36 | Skoda Rapid | 311 | 28.110 | -99% | 0,0% | 1,1% | 0 |
| 37 | Infiniti Q30 | 221 | 1.380 | -84% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 0 |
| 38 | Toyota Auris | 75 | 23.643 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,9% | 0 |
| 39 | Volkswagen Jetta | 19 | 84 | -77% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 7 |
| 40 | Volkswagen Beetle | 11 | 383 | -97% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 3 |
| 41 | Seat Toledo | 5 | 1.281 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 42 | Nissan Pulsar | 2 | 560 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 43 | DS4 | 2 | 192 | -99% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 1 |
| 44 | Mitsubishi Lancer | 0 | 22 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| Segment total | 2.025.817 | 2.650.578 | -24% |
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.