European sales of compact cars were down 40% in the first half of 2020, compared to an overall market down 38%. That means Europe’s #2 segment is down to 17.5% share of the European car market, at just under 895,000 sales.
Europe’s best seller is obviously also still the segment leader, but the VW Golf is down 44% as the new generation is just arriving in showrooms, and it loses more than a percentage point of share. The Ford Focus and Skoda Octavia outperform the market and gain share, with the Octavia outselling the Focus in Q2 thanks to the new generation. The big winner of the segment is the Toyota Corolla, all new last year and straight into fourth place among non-luxury players. The Seat Leon also gains share with a loss of 36% and it too will be replaced this year. The Peugeot 308 loses share, but the big loses of the top-20 is the Opel/Vauxhall Astra, something which a minor facelift isn’t going to make much of a difference with. The Kia Ceed, Renault Megane and Fiat Tipo also lose share, and the latteris overtaken by the Skoda Scala which just celebrated its first birthday. The Hyundai i30 has a stable share.
The Nissan Leaf EV gains share with its 19% loss and falls far behind its rival Volkswagen e-Golf (not counted separately in this table), while the Mazda3 outperforms the market at -23% to gain 0.3 percentage points of share, moving ahead of the Hyundai Ioniq and Honda Civic, the latter of which loses 62% of its sales on last year. After a super strong Q1 when most remaining stocks were cleared, the Opel Ampera-e is nearing the end of its life cycle. The Toyota Prius and even the Citroën C-Elysee outsold it in Q2.
The luxury part of the segment accounts for 27.5% of total compact car sales in Europe, stable on 2019. The Mercedes-Benz A-Class improves its share and jumps into the #4 spot overall. The BMW 1-Series is closing in with an 30% decline, moving past the Audi A3 which has just been renewed this year. Not far behind the A3 is the Mercedes-Benz CLA, up 14% thanks to the new generation. Mercedes had a good start of the year with its small cars again, just the B-Class didn’t gain share at -40%. The brand now holds a 12.9% share of the compact car class overall, up from 10.9% last year. The BMW 2-Series Active and Gran Tourer are down 55%, while the 2-Series Coupe & Convertible outperform the market at -21% thanks to the addition of the front-wheel drive Gran Coupe four-door. The BMW i3 loses ground at -47% while the Mini Clubman is down 44%. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Lexus CT and Volvo V40 have been or will be replaced by crossovers instead of new hatchbacks.
| Compact segment | 2020-H1 | 2019-H1 | Change | 2020 share | 2019 share | 2020-Q2 | |
| 1 | Volkswagen Golf | 121.166 | 217.799 | -44% | 13,5% | 14,6% | 46.616 |
| 2 | Ford Focus | 83.417 | 127.194 | -34% | 9,3% | 8,5% | 31.082 |
| 3 | Skoda Octavia | 75.944 | 117.221 | -35% | 8,5% | 7,9% | 32.245 |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 63.177 | 99.907 | -37% | 7,1% | 6,7% | 24.540 |
| 5 | Toyota Corolla | 61.200 | 52.882 | 16% | 6,8% | 3,5% | 20.050 |
| 6 | Seat Leon | 46.117 | 72.008 | -36% | 5,2% | 4,8% | 17.651 |
| 7 | BMW 1-series | 44.773 | 63.754 | -30% | 5,0% | 4,3% | 16.396 |
| 8 | Peugeot 308 | 41.124 | 77.763 | -47% | 4,6% | 5,2% | 15.776 |
| 9 | Audi A3 / S3 / RS3 | 37.717 | 72.640 | -48% | 4,2% | 4,9% | 16.924 |
| 10 | Opel/Vauxhall Astra | 33.628 | 71.654 | -53% | 3,8% | 4,8% | 13.708 |
| 11 | Mercedes-Benz CLA | 31.686 | 27.740 | 14% | 3,5% | 1,9% | 12.457 |
| 12 | Renault Megane | 31.638 | 71.092 | -55% | 3,5% | 4,8% | 13.762 |
| 13 | Kia Ceed | 31.219 | 53.979 | -42% | 3,5% | 3,6% | 13.324 |
| 14 | Skoda Scala | 24.652 | 5.376 | 359% | 2,8% | 0,4% | 10.401 |
| 15 | Fiat Tipo | 24.305 | 47.895 | -49% | 2,7% | 3,2% | 9.460 |
| 16 | Hyundai i30 | 22.223 | 36.783 | -40% | 2,5% | 2,5% | 8.815 |
| 17 | Mercedes-Benz B-Class | 20.970 | 35.076 | -40% | 2,3% | 2,4% | 7.527 |
| 18 | BMW 2-series Active/Gran Tourer | 13.811 | 30.354 | -55% | 1,5% | 2,0% | 4.968 |
| 19 | Nissan Leaf | 12.790 | 15.710 | -19% | 1,4% | 1,1% | 4.281 |
| 20 | Mazda3 | 12.129 | 15.843 | -23% | 1,4% | 1,1% | 4.540 |
| 21 | Hyundai Ioniq | 11.095 | 17.284 | -36% | 1,2% | 1,2% | 4.066 |
| 22 | BMW 2-series Coupe & Convertible | 9.745 | 12.343 | -21% | 1,1% | 0,8% | 4.472 |
| 23 | BMW i3 | 8.471 | 15.876 | -47% | 0,9% | 1,1% | 3.254 |
| 24 | Honda Civic | 8.146 | 21.354 | -62% | 0,9% | 1,4% | 2.282 |
| 25 | Mini Clubman | 7.427 | 13.289 | -44% | 0,8% | 0,9% | 2.832 |
| 26 | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 4.587 | 9.108 | -50% | 0,5% | 0,6% | 1.929 |
| 27 | Opel Ampera-e | 2.482 | 996 | 149% | 0,3% | 0,1% | 476 |
| 28 | Toyota Prius | 2.116 | 3.257 | -35% | 0,2% | 0,2% | 913 |
| 29 | Lexus CT | 1.733 | 2.995 | -42% | 0,2% | 0,2% | 594 |
| 30 | Volvo V40 | 1.588 | 24.995 | -94% | 0,2% | 1,7% | 397 |
| 31 | Citroën C-Elysee | 1.396 | 3.573 | -61% | 0,2% | 0,2% | 539 |
| 32 | Hyundai Elantra | 750 | 807 | -7% | 0,1% | 0,1% | 228 |
| 33 | Skoda Rapid | 297 | 24.385 | -99% | 0,0% | 1,6% | 32 |
| 34 | Lada Vesta | 292 | 701 | -58% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 225 |
| 35 | Peugeot 301 | 247 | 803 | -69% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 158 |
| 36 | Infiniti Q30 | 216 | 766 | -72% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 18 |
| 37 | Subaru Impreza | 193 | 1.056 | -82% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 146 |
| 38 | Toyota Auris | 66 | 21.186 | -100% | 0,0% | 1,4% | 24 |
| 39 | Volkswagen Jetta | 7 | 78 | -91% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 1 |
| 40 | Seat Toledo | 5 | 1.030 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 0 |
| 41 | Volkswagen Beetle | 5 | 369 | -99% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 2 |
| 42 | Nissan Pulsar | 2 | 523 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 43 | DS4 | 1 | 190 | -99% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| Segment total | 894.553 | 1.489.775 | -40% |
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.