The small MPV segment in Europe is dying quickly at -15% in the first three quarters of 2016, and it may drop below 300.000 units this year, down by a third on 2013 when Europeans bought more than 450.000 small MPVs. Those customers have switched to buying small crossovers, which are more trendy and also offer a higher seating position, one of the main selling points of these cars. Not a single of the still existing models in this segment improved its sales on last year, with the Nissan Note taking the biggest hit, losing almost a quarter of its volume and the Citroën C3 Picasso performing the best at just -2%. The Fiat 500L remains the distant leader thanks to its home market Italy which buys 2 out of 3 500L’s sold in Europe. The Opel/Vauxhall Meriva and Ford B-Max complete the top-3. GM and PSA are developing the next generation Meriva and C3 Picasso together and are designing more crossover-like models to appeal to a wider audience. The Meriva will be renamed Crossland X.
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
As recently as Q1 of 2015 the Note was the #2 of the segment, but it has dropped to 5th place and has been under threat of the Hyundai ix20 in Q3 of 2016. Together with its platform sibling Kia Venga, the ix20 has been among the most stable sellers of this segment, despite being already 7 years and 6 years old respectively. Besides this top-7, all other models have already been discontinued, and no new models or replacements are planned, except for the GM-PSA models mentioned above.
| Small MPV segment | 2016 Q3 | 2015 Q3 | Change | |
| 1 | Fiat 500L | 66.026 | 68.545 | -4% |
| 2 | Opel/Vauxhall Meriva | 38.097 | 41.978 | -9% |
| 3 | Ford B-Max | 32.544 | 36.332 | -10% |
| 4 | Citroën C3 Picasso | 30.028 | 30.759 | -2% |
| 5 | Nissan Note | 29.043 | 37.915 | -23% |
| 6 | Hyundai ix20 | 26.335 | 27.951 | -6% |
| 7 | Kia Venga | 20.848 | 22.598 | -8% |
| 8 | Toyota Verso-S | 527 | 4.613 | -89% |
| 9 | Skoda Roomster | 88 | 14.586 | -99% |
| 10 | Lancia Musa | 5 | 3 | 67% |
| 11 | Subaru Trezia | 1 | 45 | -98% |
| Segment total | 243.542 | 285.325 | -15% |
Click on any model to see its annual sales from 1997-2016 and monthly sales from 2012 to 2016, 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.