European sales of midsized cars were down 29% in the first nine months of 2020 to just under 560,000 sales, as its share of the European car market drops to 6.5%, slightly down from 6.6% in the same period of last year. And luxury brands have now officially taken over control of this class, improving their share to 62.6% from 60.5% last year and claiming four of the top-5 positions.
The BMW 3-Series consolidates its newly found spot at the top of the ranking, and is the best performer in the top-10 with sales down just 5%. In fact, there’s only one model in the entire class doing better than the 3-Series at this moment. The traditional leader Volkswagen Passat is down into 2nd place but still manages to gain market share this year. The Tesla Model 3 claimed a podium spot in Q3, outselling the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Audi A4, but not with a margin that could help it finish the full year in the top-3. The Skoda Superb is the #2 mainstream model ahead of the Peugeot 508, while former top-3 players Ford Mondeo and Opel/Vauxhall Insignia continue to struggle, quickly losing market share and becoming irrelevant. The Audi A5 and BMW 4-Series are losing share as well. On the other hand, the Volvo S60/V60 outperforms the market with just 12% fewer sales so far this year.
The Toyota Camry is the winner of the segment with sales up 40%, but it’s still stuck in 14th place with fewer than 2,500 sales per quarter and being outsold by the Volkswagen Arteon. I imagine this is incomprehensible for Americans where the Camry is still the best selling sedan overall and VW is a niche player in the midsized segment, even with the Passat. The Polestar 2 EV was in 13th place of the segment in Q3 and could finish the year in the top-15 ahead of models quickly fading away, like the Renault Talisman, Mazda6 and Jaguar XE.
| Midsized segment | 2020 Q1-Q3 | 2019 Q1-Q3 | Change | 2020 share | 2020-Q3 | |
| 1 | BMW 3-series | 82.152 | 86.793 | -5% | 14,7% | 30.012 |
| 2 | Volkswagen Passat | 78.899 | 90.621 | -13% | 14,1% | 28.983 |
| 3 | Mercedes-Benz C-Class | 62.084 | 113.122 | -45% | 11,1% | 22.933 |
| 4 | Audi A4 / S4 / RS4 | 59.331 | 80.982 | -27% | 10,6% | 22.179 |
| 5 | Tesla Model 3 | 56.168 | 63.362 | -11% | 10,0% | 23.644 |
| 6 | Skoda Superb | 42.244 | 51.734 | -18% | 7,6% | 16.631 |
| 7 | Volvo S60/V60 | 42.619 | 48.549 | -12% | 7,6% | 13.635 |
| 8 | Peugeot 508 | 21.100 | 30.164 | -30% | 3,8% | 6.980 |
| 9 | Audi A5 / S5 / RS5 | 20.351 | 33.965 | -40% | 3,6% | 8.414 |
| 10 | Ford Mondeo | 16.013 | 30.782 | -48% | 2,9% | 5.678 |
| 11 | Opel/Vauxhall Insignia | 13.573 | 36.976 | -63% | 2,4% | 3.653 |
| 12 | BMW 4-series | 13.376 | 29.526 | -55% | 2,4% | 4.845 |
| 13 | Volkswagen Arteon | 10.296 | 14.449 | -29% | 1,8% | 3.040 |
| 14 | Toyota Camry | 6.772 | 4.842 | 40% | 1,2% | 2.458 |
| 15 | Renault Talisman | 5.525 | 12.060 | -54% | 1,0% | 2.054 |
| 16 | Alfa Romeo Giulia | 5.351 | 8.448 | -37% | 1,0% | 2.115 |
| 17 | Mazda6 | 5.284 | 16.810 | -69% | 0,9% | 2.189 |
| 18 | Kia Optima | 4.905 | 9.901 | -50% | 0,9% | 1.214 |
| 19 | Jaguar XE | 3.445 | 6.534 | -47% | 0,6% | 828 |
| 20 | Polestar 2 | 3.237 | 0 | #DIV/0! | 0,6% | 3.219 |
| 21 | Subaru Legacy / Outback | 2.431 | 4.562 | -47% | 0,4% | 1.042 |
| 22 | Lexus IS | 1.366 | 2.637 | -48% | 0,2% | 546 |
| 23 | Kia Stinger | 1.163 | 2.886 | -60% | 0,2% | 413 |
| 24 | Lexus RC | 568 | 886 | -36% | 0,1% | 269 |
| 25 | Subaru Levorg | 418 | 807 | -48% | 0,1% | 181 |
| 26 | Hyundai i40 | 299 | 2.866 | -90% | 0,1% | 72 |
| 27 | Infiniti Q50 | 70 | 501 | -86% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 28 | Infiniti Q60 | 1 | 78 | -99% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 29 | Toyota Avensis | 0 | 897 | -100% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 30 | DS5 | 0 | 145 | -100% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 31 | Citroën C5 | 0 | 3 | -100% | 0,0% | 0 |
| Segment total | 559.041 | 785.888 | -29% |
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.