After years of decline, the midsized car segment is actually up 1% in 2019 to 1.05 million sales, maintaining a 6.7% share of the overall car market. However, if it wasn’t for the thunderous arrival of the Tesla Model 3, the class would be down another 8% again this year. The all-electric sedan landed in 5th place with over 95,000 sales, of which 30,000 in The Netherlands and 15,700 in Norway, which means these two countries that account for 3.7% of the European car market have taken 48% of Model 3 deliveries thanks to generous subsidies and other perks for electric vehicles. In both countries the Model 3 was the best selling model overall and Tesla was the #2 best selling brand in Norway behind VW and in NL it was #3 behind VW and Opel. Another historic phenomenon in this segment happened in 2019, with the Mercedes-Benz C-Class taking the overall lead from the Volkswagen Passat, and luxury vehicles expanding their share to above 60% of the overall segment, also helped by the Model 3.
The Passat still leads the mainstream part of the class, but is down 19% to its lowest sales volume in at least two decades (our data doesn’t go further back than 1997 as the European Union was still smaller back then. The Skoda Superb is down 10% before the plug-in hybrid version may revive sales in 2020, and the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia is down 32% as PSA is less interested in selling a GM developed model after the takeover. The Insignia was outsold by the Peugeot 508 in both Q3 and Q4 but stayed just ahead of the Ford Mondeo, down 20% for the year. The Mazda6 is up 6% to distance the Renault Talisman, despite a 45% increase in Q4. The Kia Optima is down 15%, while the Toyota Camry lands in an overall 19th place (9th place among mainstream midsized cars) ahead of the Subary Legacy/Outback.
In the luxury part of the segment, which accounts for 60.5% of total midsized car sales in Europe (up from 54% in 2018), the C-Class maintains its top spot despite a 5% drop in deliveries. However, the C-Class figures include sales of the Coupe and Convertible models, which brands like BMW and Audi split into stand-alone models. When combining those, BMW takes the top spot with 160,400 sales of the 3-Series and 4-Series combined, up 1% on 2018 thanks to a 16% gain for the former because of the new generation. Audi would also finish 2019 ahead of Mercedes-Benz with a combined 144,800 deliveries for the A4 and A5, despite a combined 11% loss on 2018. The Volvo S60/V60 is up 37% thanks to the new generation, and this also sets a new annual sales record for the V60 nameplate at 56,777 sales, a take rate of 88.1% for the station wagon. The Alfa Romeo Giulia is down 36% to below 11,000 sales but remains ahead of the Jaguar XE which is down 27% to below 8,000 sales, just 0.8% share of the segment (1.3% of the luxury segment). The Lexus IS is due for a redesign, while Infiniti has been pulled from the European market, which will give the red lantern of the segment back to Lexus.
Also check out 2019 midsized car sales in the US, where the Camry leads ahead of the Honda Accord and Nissan Altima, while the Model 3 is the best selling luxury car at #6.
| Midsized segment | 2019 | 2018 | Change | 2019 share | 2018 share | |
| 1 | Mercedes-Benz C-Class | 143.293 | 150.995 | -5% | 13,7% | 14,6% |
| 2 | Volkswagen Passat | 124.650 | 154.074 | -19% | 11,9% | 14,9% |
| 3 | BMW 3-series | 124.537 | 106.991 | 16% | 11,9% | 10,3% |
| 4 | Audi A4 / S4 / RS4 | 102.994 | 112.484 | -8% | 9,9% | 10,9% |
| 5 | Tesla Model 3 | 95.168 | 0 | New | 9,1% | 0,0% |
| 6 | Skoda Superb | 67.488 | 74.697 | -10% | 6,5% | 7,2% |
| 7 | Volvo S60/V60 | 64.456 | 46.945 | 37% | 6,2% | 4,5% |
| 8 | Opel/Vauxhall Insignia | 45.925 | 67.424 | -32% | 4,4% | 6,5% |
| 9 | Audi A5 / S5 / RS5 | 41.812 | 49.799 | -16% | 4,0% | 4,8% |
| 10 | Peugeot 508 | 41.329 | 13.378 | 209% | 4,0% | 1,3% |
| 11 | Ford Mondeo | 39.555 | 49.596 | -20% | 3,8% | 4,8% |
| 12 | BMW 4-series | 35.908 | 52.248 | -31% | 3,4% | 5,1% |
| 13 | Mazda6 | 22.048 | 20.873 | 6% | 2,1% | 2,0% |
| 14 | Volkswagen Arteon | 19.048 | 21.495 | -11% | 1,8% | 2,1% |
| 15 | Renault Talisman | 16.405 | 19.784 | -17% | 1,6% | 1,9% |
| 16 | Kia Optima | 12.202 | 14.404 | -15% | 1,2% | 1,4% |
| 17 | Alfa Romeo Giulia | 10.932 | 17.075 | -36% | 1,0% | 1,7% |
| 18 | Jaguar XE | 7.978 | 10.877 | -27% | 0,8% | 1,1% |
| 19 | Toyota Camry | 7.640 | 0 | New | 0,7% | 0,0% |
| 20 | Subaru Legacy / Outback | 7.504 | 7.460 | 1% | 0,7% | 0,7% |
| 21 | Kia Stinger | 3.600 | 3.820 | -6% | 0,3% | 0,4% |
| 22 | Hyundai i40 | 3.445 | 9.144 | -62% | 0,3% | 0,9% |
| 23 | Lexus IS | 3.282 | 5.413 | -39% | 0,3% | 0,5% |
| 24 | Subaru Levorg | 1.395 | 1.748 | -20% | 0,1% | 0,2% |
| 25 | Lexus RC | 1.082 | 1.334 | -19% | 0,1% | 0,1% |
| 26 | Toyota Avensis | 897 | 17.277 | -95% | 0,1% | 1,7% |
| 27 | Infiniti Q50 | 563 | 1.471 | -62% | 0,1% | 0,1% |
| 28 | DS5 | 145 | 2.720 | -95% | 0,0% | 0,3% |
| 29 | Infiniti Q60 | 83 | 368 | -77% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 30 | Citroën C5 | 4 | 151 | -97% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 31 | Segment total | 1.045.368 | 1.034.045 | 1% |
Click on any model to see its annual sales from 1997-2019 and monthly sales from 2016 to 2020, or use the dropdown menu in the top right of this site.
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.