Sales of small MPVs in Europe are slowing down fast, as customers are switching away from these roomy alternatives to subcompact hatchbacks in favor of the more trendy crossovers that are gaining popularity quickly. And the manufacturers are giving the people what they need: there are no new models entering the segment, and the existing models that are due to be redesigned are all switching to a more SUV-like design. All of the top-5 players in this segment also have a crossover model in their line-up and all of those are outselling their MPV counterparts, making this segment a difficult business case to spend money on developing a next generation small MPV. As a result of that, the aging segment (not only in terms of model age, but also the age of the prospective buyers) is down 15% in the first half of 2016, dipping below 200.000 sales as only one of the players in this segment sells more than it did last year, and by a tiny margin.
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
The Fiat 500L increases its share of the segment to 28% with sales down just 3%, while the Opel/Vauxhall Meriva is down 7% as its new generation will get more crossover-like design as it arrives within a few months’ time, together with its Citroën twin C3 Picasso. Despite that, the Picasso gains 500 sales on last year and closes in on the third place of the Ford B-Max with the sliding rear doors, down 8%. The Nissan Note is the biggest loser of the top-5, losing a quarter of its volume and dropping two places into the #5 position, but even the Hyundai ix20 outsold the Note in Q2, so it might lose yet another position by year-end. The Kia Venga carries the red lantern for models that are still on sale as we speak, the other four models have already been discontinued.
| Small MPV segment | 2016 H1 | 2015 H1 | Change | |
| 1 | Fiat 500L | 49.201 | 50.639 | -3% |
| 2 | Opel/Vauxhall Meriva | 27.434 | 29.642 | -7% |
| 3 | Ford B-Max | 23.213 | 25.164 | -8% |
| 4 | Citroën C3 Picasso | 22.333 | 21.811 | 2% |
| 5 | Nissan Note | 20.367 | 27.467 | -26% |
| 6 | Hyundai ix20 | 18.111 | 19.914 | -9% |
| 7 | Kia Venga | 14.410 | 15.619 | -8% |
| 8 | Toyota Verso-S | 467 | 3.865 | -88% |
| 9 | Skoda Roomster | 82 | 12.989 | -99% |
| 10 | Lancia Musa | 4 | 3 | 33% |
| 11 | Subaru Trezia | 1 | 38 | -97% |
| Segment total | 175.623 | 207.151 | -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.