Sales of midsized crossovers in Europe are down 23% in 2020 which narrowly beats the overall market. With a total of just over 940,000 deliveries, midsized crossovers now make up 7.9% of the total European car market, up from 7.8% in 2019.
Like the midsized car segment, this is the smallest class where luxury brands outsell their mainstream rivals, at 50.1% share of the midsized crossover class, up from 44.2% in 2019. Best selling mainstream model in 2020 is the Toyota RAV4, which easily beats the segment with an 1% decline in deliveries, allowing it to improve its share by more than 2 percentage points. Last year’s leader Ford Kuga was renewed in early 2020 but just when sales were starting to take off in Q3, a recall and a production stop of its plug-in hybrid version put a brake on its challenge to reclaim leadership. Its 50% decline on last year is a bit skewed, because Ford self-registered a large number of unsold Kugas of the previous generation in Q4 of 2019, artificially boosting its score. The Skoda Kodiaq slightly improves its share of hte segment and distances the Peugeot 5008, down 28%.
The Mitsubishi Outlander is down 29% and maintains its high take rate of the PHEV version at almost 80%. A new Outlander is planned for 2021 but that version is no longer coming to Europe. The Mazda CX-5 loses more than half of its sales, partially due to cannibalization of the smaller CX-30, while the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace manages to stay ahead of its sibling Seat Tarraco, although both lose share. The Honda CR-V is down 39% despite the addition of a hybrid version, and it’s under threat from the Nissan X-Trail. At the bottom of the ranking we welcome the Suzuki Across, a rebadged RAV4 PHEV, with its first 1,953 deliveries and four all-electric crossovers: the Volkswagen ID.4 and its sibling Skoda Enyaq, the Aiways U5 from China, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E from the USA.
The luxury part of the segment is as mentioned above larger than the mainstream midsized crossover segment, and the Mercedes-Benz GLC takes the overall segment lead with sales down 9%. The GLC improves its share to 10.5% of the segment thanks to its facelift and plug-in hybrid versions which represent 21.5% of its total sales. The Volvo XC60 jumps to an overall #4 spot and gains share thanks to sales down 14%. It distances the BMW X3 which is down 24%. The Audi Q5 outperforms the class at -16%, while the Mercedes-Benz GLB lands at an overall #11 after scoring 9th place in the last quarter. The DS7 Crossback gains share at -14% with a take rate for the Plug-in Hybrid version of 33%, allowing it to move ahead of the Land Rover Discovery Sport. The Alfa Romeo Stelvio, BMW X4 and Porsche Macan all lose more than 30% of their sales. The Mercedes-Benz EQC beats its rival Jaguar I-Pace despite a last-quarter surge of the latter, although that was due to a bulk of self-registrations to lower Jaguar-Land Rover’s emissions fine. The Lexus NX keeps its share stable and leapfrogs the Range Rover Velar and Jaguar F-Pace.
| Midsized SUV segment | 2020 | 2019 | Change | 2020 share | 2019 share | 2020-Q4 | |
| 1 | Mercedes-Benz GLC | 99.160 | 109.095 | -9% | 10,5% | 8,9% | 28.234 |
| 2 | Toyota RAV4 | 90.761 | 91.800 | -1% | 9,6% | 7,5% | 26.611 |
| 3 | Ford Kuga | 80.177 | 161.635 | -50% | 8,5% | 13,2% | 23.650 |
| 4 | Volvo XC60 | 70.533 | 81.876 | -14% | 7,5% | 6,7% | 20.880 |
| 5 | Skoda Kodiaq | 69.516 | 88.516 | -21% | 7,4% | 7,2% | 18.230 |
| 6 | BMW X3 | 61.740 | 81.465 | -24% | 6,5% | 6,6% | 16.200 |
| 7 | Peugeot 5008 | 54.468 | 76.104 | -28% | 5,8% | 6,2% | 15.651 |
| 8 | Audi Q5 | 53.523 | 63.915 | -16% | 3,3% | 3,0% | 18.734 |
| 9 | Mitsubishi Outlander | 33.729 | 47.381 | -29% | 3,6% | 3,9% | 7.576 |
| 10 | Mazda CX-5 | 31.703 | 64.860 | -51% | 2,0% | 3,1% | 8.122 |
| 11 | Mercedes-Benz GLB | 27.223 | 149 | +++ | 1,7% | 0,0% | 12.293 |
| 12 | Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace | 26.443 | 39.714 | -33% | 5,6% | 7,3% | 6.225 |
| 13 | DS7 Crossback | 24.087 | 27.940 | -14% | 1,5% | 1,3% | 7.396 |
| 14 | Land Rover Discovery Sport | 21.348 | 27.989 | -24% | 2,3% | 2,3% | 5.876 |
| 15 | Seat Tarraco | 21.229 | 29.615 | -28% | 2,2% | 2,4% | 5.231 |
| 16 | Honda CR-V | 20.239 | 32.929 | -39% | 2,1% | 2,7% | 5.875 |
| 17 | Nissan X-Trail | 19.376 | 25.444 | -24% | 2,0% | 2,1% | 4.200 |
| 18 | Alfa Romeo Stelvio | 17.438 | 26.866 | -35% | 1,8% | 2,2% | 5.701 |
| 19 | BMW X4 | 16.981 | 26.434 | -36% | 1,8% | 2,2% | 4.332 |
| 20 | Porsche Macan | 16.865 | 24.469 | -31% | 1,8% | 2,0% | 6.178 |
| 21 | Mercedes-Benz EQC | 14.645 | 1.432 | 923% | 1,5% | 0,1% | 7.156 |
| 22 | Jaguar I-Pace | 13.444 | 12.232 | 10% | 1,4% | 1,0% | 7.136 |
| 23 | Lexus NX | 13.284 | 17.545 | -24% | 1,4% | 1,4% | 3.588 |
| 24 | Range Rover Velar | 12.784 | 22.770 | -44% | 1,4% | 1,9% | 2.556 |
| 25 | Jaguar F-Pace | 11.026 | 18.884 | -42% | 1,2% | 1,5% | 1.971 |
| 26 | Renault Koleos | 6.916 | 12.371 | -44% | 0,7% | 1,0% | 1.407 |
| 27 | Subaru Forester | 6.377 | 10.257 | -38% | 0,7% | 0,8% | 1.932 |
| 28 | Volkswagen ID.4 | 4.810 | 0 | New | 0,5% | 0,0% | 4.810 |
| 29 | Jeep Cherokee | 2.237 | 4.915 | -54% | 0,2% | 0,4% | 382 |
| 30 | Suzuki Across | 1.953 | 0 | New | 0,2% | 0,0% | 1.733 |
| 31 | Hyundai Nexo | 468 | 362 | 29% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 139 |
| 32 | Aiways U5 | 430 | 0 | New | 0,0% | 0,0% | 384 |
| 33 | Mahindra XUV500 | 307 | 119 | 158% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 85 |
| 34 | Skoda Enyaq | 186 | New | 0,0% | 0,0% | 186 | |
| 35 | Ford Mustang Mach-E | 185 | 0 | New | 0,0% | 0,0% | 185 |
| Segment total | 945.591 | 1.229.083 | -23% |
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.