Large SUVs continue to gain share in Europe, outperforming the overall market thanks to sales down 15%, and now make up 2.7% of the total European car market, from 1.9% in the first half of 2019 and 2.1% in all of 2019. Total segment volume in the first half is 137,600 sales, of which 87.6% are from luxury brands, up from 80.2% last year.
The class leader BMW X5 loses a tiny bit of share with sales down 16% and it was outsold in Q2 by the redesigned Mercedes-Benz GLE by 8 sales. The Audi e-Tron holds on to third place, but the Volvo XC90 narrowly outsold the EV in Q2. Year-on-year, the GLE and e-Tron are the big winners, the former more than doubling thanks to the new generation and the latter almost doubling as it was launched in Q1 of 2019. The Range Rover Sport sees its sales almost cut in half and feels the Porsche Cayenne breathing down its neck, up 39%. The Cayenne’s sister models Audi Q7, Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q8 follow, of which the latter two are in difficulty while the Q7 is down just 7%. Thanks to the new generation, the BMW X6 is up 67% to leapfrog the Range Rover and Land Rover Discovery, with the latter also passed by the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. The Range Rover stays the best selling Extra Large SUV, ahead of the all-new BMW X7 and the renewed Mercedes-Benz GLS. The all-new Land Rover Defender moves up to 22nd place and should continue to move up the charts for the rest of the year.
VW Group’s share of this class is up from 27.8% to 31% compared to BMW Group’s 17.7%, Daimler’s 17.2%, and Tata Group’s 12.8%. As mentioned above, luxury brands make up the bulk of this segment, with the Volkswagen Touareg as the best selling mainstream model ahead of the Hyundai Santa Fe and Toyota Land Cruiser. Ford has just launched the Explorer PHEV in Europe and now has two players in this niche segment, but the Plug-in hybrid SUV actually has a chance of moderate success in Europe as it offers a lot of car for the money and reasonable fuel efficiency for its size.
| Large SUV segment | 2020-H1 | 2019-H1 | Change | 2020 share | 2019 share | 2020-Q2 | |
| 1 | BMW X5 | 17.224 | 20.557 | -16% | 12,5% | 12,8% | 7.414 |
| 2 | Mercedes-Benz GLE | 16.988 | 8.268 | 105% | 12,3% | 5,1% | 7.426 |
| 3 | Audi e-Tron | 12.806 | 6.538 | 96% | 9,3% | 4,1% | 4.819 |
| 4 | Volvo XC90 | 11.292 | 14.930 | -24% | 8,2% | 9,3% | 4.874 |
| 5 | Range Rover Sport | 8.614 | 15.484 | -44% | 6,3% | 9,6% | 2.815 |
| 6 | Porsche Cayenne | 8.470 | 6.111 | 39% | 6,2% | 3,8% | 3.504 |
| 7 | Audi Q7 | 7.863 | 8.496 | -7% | 5,7% | 5,3% | 2.778 |
| 8 | Volkswagen Touareg | 6.807 | 12.856 | -47% | 4,9% | 8,0% | 2.472 |
| 9 | Audi Q8 | 5.838 | 9.819 | -41% | 4,2% | 6,1% | 2.328 |
| 10 | BMW X6 | 4.413 | 2.638 | 67% | 3,2% | 1,6% | 2.116 |
| 11 | Range Rover | 3.834 | 6.784 | -43% | 2,8% | 4,2% | 1.335 |
| 12 | Mercedes-Benz G-Class | 3.273 | 4.695 | -30% | 2,4% | 2,9% | 1.514 |
| 13 | Hyundai Santa Fe | 3.261 | 4.713 | -31% | 2,4% | 2,9% | 1.270 |
| 14 | Land Rover Discovery | 3.250 | 5.259 | -38% | 2,4% | 3,3% | 799 |
| 15 | Lexus RX | 2.647 | 3.686 | -28% | 1,9% | 2,3% | 1.120 |
| 16 | BMW X7 | 2.527 | 1.703 | 48% | 1,8% | 1,1% | 1.259 |
| 17 | Mercedes-Benz GLS | 2.395 | 1.126 | 113% | 1,7% | 0,7% | 1.036 |
| 18 | Toyota Land Cruiser | 2.332 | 3.350 | -30% | 1,7% | 2,1% | 1.175 |
| 19 | Tesla Model X | 2.291 | 3.667 | -38% | 1,7% | 2,3% | 1.064 |
| 20 | Kia Sorento | 2.101 | 4.691 | -55% | 1,5% | 2,9% | 657 |
| 21 | Jeep Grand Cherokee | 2.015 | 3.699 | -46% | 1,5% | 2,3% | 1.045 |
| 22 | Land Rover Defender | 1.968 | 0 | New | 1,4% | 0,0% | 1.661 |
| 23 | Ford Edge | 1.774 | 4.690 | -62% | 1,3% | 2,9% | 742 |
| 24 | Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe | 993 | 2.754 | -64% | 0,7% | 1,7% | 594 |
| 25 | Maserati Levante | 881 | 1.859 | -53% | 0,6% | 1,2% | 360 |
| 26 | Lamborghini Urus | 509 | 522 | -2% | 0,4% | 0,3% | 196 |
| 27 | Ford Explorer | 462 | 0 | New | 0,3% | 0,0% | 324 |
| 28 | Bentley Bentayga | 371 | 399 | -7% | 0,3% | 0,2% | 121 |
| 29 | SsangYong Rexton | 176 | 1.059 | -83% | 0,1% | 0,7% | 56 |
| 30 | Rolls Royce Cullinan | 147 | 188 | -22% | 0,1% | 0,1% | 41 |
| 31 | Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero / Shogun | 73 | 373 | -80% | 0,1% | 0,2% | 1 |
| 32 | Mitsubishi Pajero Sport | 50 | 263 | -81% | 0,0% | 0,2% | 19 |
| 33 | Infiniti QX70 | 0 | 23 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| Segment total | 137.645 | 161.200 | -15% |
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.