The midsized crossover segment in Europe has grown at double the speed of the overall market in the first half of 2016: +17% vs. +8,8%, but it was still outsold by the small crossover segment for the first time ever in Q2. Nonetheless, sales of midsized crossovers are expected to continue increasing, as new brands and models keep entering this highly competitive class. The increased competition takes away some share from the segment leader Nissan Qashqai, but so far no other model can come close to challenging its leadership. Its closest rival of last year, the Volkswagen Tiguan suffered from a model changeover and has dropped to 4th place, making room for the two South-Korean sister models to step onto the podium. Even the all-new Renault Kadjar outsold the Tiguan in Q2, but the VW is likely to strike back in the second half, when deliveries of the new generation gain traction. As a result of these new or updated models, the Ford Kuga loses two spots on last year to become a distant #6 despite growing 22%.
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Photo credit: L’ArgusEven further down, the battle for 7th place is fierce as well, between the Toyota RAV4, the first model in the segment to be available as a hybrid (not counting the plug-in hybrid Outlander), the Skoda Yeti and the Nissan X-Trail. The latter makes it 3 Renault-Nissan models on the same platform in the top-9, with a share of 31,3% of the segment, compared to a 20,9% for Hyundai-Kia. Let’s see how Volkswagen’s MQB platform will do when all three models are fully available next year: the Tiguan, Seat Ateca and Skoda Kodiaq. Indicating that some kind of consolidation may be taking place in the segment, from the #10 downwards only one model adds volume and that’s by a margin of less than 200 units, while most of the others show double digit declines. The Mazda CX-5, Honda CR-V and Mitsubishi Outlander are pretty stable, but the Mitsubishi ASX loses 25% in Q2, the Suzuki S-Cross is down 38% in the first half on competition from the Vitara and because a facelift is imminent.
We welcome no less than three all-new models to the segment this quarter, still with very shy numbers in their first few months: in 25th place the Seat Ateca, the Spanish sister of the Tiguan, aiming for a top-10 position next year. In 30th place with just 70 sales in its introduction month the Kia Niro, the crossover version of the Hyundai Ioniq hybrid and Kia’s second entry in this segment. 31st place, also introduced in June the MG GS, the UK-only model of the British-Chinese brand. The GS was supposed to help SAIC-MG start opening up other European markets, but those plans have unfortunately been frozen when the Brexit vote complicated matters.
Also check out the heavily competitive compact SUV segment in the US where the #1 and #4 are separated by just 10% of sales.
| Midsized SUV segment | 2016 H1 | 2015 H1 | Change | |
| 1 | Nissan Qashqai | 125.829 | 124.346 | 1% |
| 2 | Kia Sportage | 77.461 | 56.691 | 37% |
| 3 | Hyundai Tucson | 75.288 | 107 | New |
| 4 | Volkswagen Tiguan | 72.241 | 75.517 | -4% |
| 5 | Renault Kadjar | 71.908 | 7.087 | 915% |
| 6 | Ford Kuga | 63.206 | 51.884 | 22% |
| 7 | Toyota RAV4 | 33.386 | 31.541 | 6% |
| 8 | Skoda Yeti | 32.754 | 33.862 | -3% |
| 9 | Nissan X-Trail | 32.170 | 20.384 | 58% |
| 10 | Mazda CX-5 | 29.347 | 29.412 | 0% |
| 11 | Honda CR-V | 24.446 | 25.144 | -3% |
| 12 | Mitsubishi Outlander | 21.238 | 22.515 | -6% |
| 13 | Mitsubishi ASX | 20.736 | 23.823 | -13% |
| 14 | Suzuki S-Cross | 10.363 | 16.685 | -38% |
| 15 | Hyundai ix35 | 8.883 | 56.476 | -84% |
| 16 | Subaru Forester | 6.492 | 7.752 | -16% |
| 17 | Jeep Cherokee | 5.622 | 7.049 | -20% |
| 18 | Citroën C4 Aircross | 5.562 | 6.044 | -8% |
| 19 | Subaru XV | 5.111 | 4.915 | 4% |
| 20 | Fiat Freemont | 2.642 | 7.355 | -64% |
| 21 | SsangYong Korando | 2.163 | 3.451 | -37% |
| 22 | Jeep Wrangler | 1.905 | 2.903 | -34% |
| 23 | Opel/Vauxhall Antara | 1.222 | 3.714 | -67% |
| 24 | Peugeot 4008 | 1.217 | 1.313 | -7% |
| 25 | Seat Ateca | 1.104 | 0 | New |
| 26 | Suzuki Grand Vitara | 930 | 2.017 | -54% |
| 27 | Jeep Compass | 186 | 381 | -51% |
| 28 | Renault Koleos | 145 | 3.980 | -96% |
| 29 | DR5 | 103 | 98 | 5% |
| 30 | Kia Niro | 70 | 0 | New |
| 31 | MG GS | 65 | 0 | New |
| 32 | Chevrolet Captiva | 6 | 35 | -83% |
| Segment total | 733.801 | 626.481 | 17% |
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.