Sales of large SUVs in Europe prove very resilient, showing a 2% improvement in the first quarter of 2020, making it the only segment to not lose volume for this quarter. It improves its share of the total European car market from 1.9% in Q1 of 2019 and 2.1% in all of 2019 to 2.7% now, with just under 81,000 sales, of which 91.4% are from luxury brands.
The class leader BMW X5 beats the segment with sales up 6% but it’s joined on the podium by 2 hard charging models. The Mercedes-Benz GLE more than triples its sales of last year thank to the new generation, and takes second place, fewer than 250 sales behind the X5. Meanwhile, the all-electric Audi e-Tron storms to third place, almost tripling its sales of last year. That leaves behind the Volvo XC90 and Range Rover Sport, both of which lose share significantly. The success of the e-Tron doesn’t bother its sibling Audi Q7 much, but its 7% improvement is on a very low base, as the Q7 is barely ahead of its platform siblings Porsche Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q8. Ther former of which recovers from a slow start of 2019 while the latter two lose about a third of their sales each. Still, VW Group’s share of this class is up from 27% to 32.8% compared to BMW Group’s 15.1%, Daimler’s 16.2%, and Tata Group’s 13.7%.
The Range Rover is down 37%, allowing the BMW X6 to close in with sales up 75% thanks to the new generation, while the Mercedes-Benz G-Class and Lexus RX are losing ground. The recently renewed Mercedes-Benz GLS narrowly stayes ahead of its main rival, the all new BMW X7 as both move past the Tesla Model X (-23%), Jeep Grand Cherokee (-47%), Maserati Levante (-41%) and Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe (-73%). The Lamborghini Urus and Bentley Bentayga are up by double digits, while their main rival Rolls Royce Cullinan is down 12%. We welcome the all-new Land Rover Defender with its first deliveries.
As mentioned above, luxury brands have improved their share of the segment from 85.2% to 91.4%, leaving crumbs for the mainstream large SUVs. However, those brands have not yet given up on the segment, as the next generation Kia Sorento is already on sale in its home market South-Korea, Ford has just reintroduced the Explorer in Europe with a plug-in hybrid powertrain and Toyota will bring the Highlander hybrid to Europe for the first time ever. Meanwhile, the Hyundai Santa Fe takes back the top spot from its sister model Kia Sorento, which is down 42%. The Toyota Land Cruiser takes third place from the Ford Edge, which is down 55%. We welcome its sibling model Explorer plug-in hybrid with its first sales, already outselling hte SsangYong Rexton and Mitsubishi Pajero.
| Large SUV segment | 2020-Q1 | 2019-Q1 | Change | 2020 share | 2019 share | |
| 1 | BMW X5 | 9.810 | 9.279 | 6% | 12,2% | 11,7% |
| 2 | Mercedes-Benz GLE | 9.562 | 2.815 | 240% | 11,8% | 3,5% |
| 3 | Audi e-Tron | 7.987 | 2.692 | 197% | 9,9% | 3,4% |
| 4 | Volvo XC90 | 6.418 | 8.180 | -22% | 8,0% | 10,3% |
| 5 | Range Rover Sport | 5.799 | 8.712 | -33% | 7,2% | 11,0% |
| 6 | Audi Q7 | 5.085 | 4.769 | 7% | 6,3% | 6,0% |
| 7 | Porsche Cayenne | 4.966 | 1.871 | 165% | 6,2% | 2,4% |
| 8 | Volkswagen Touareg | 4.335 | 6.462 | -33% | 5,4% | 8,1% |
| 9 | Audi Q8 | 3.510 | 5.183 | -32% | 4,3% | 6,5% |
| 10 | Range Rover | 2.499 | 3.963 | -37% | 3,1% | 5,0% |
| 11 | Land Rover Discovery | 2.451 | 2.481 | -1% | 3,0% | 3,1% |
| 12 | BMW X6 | 2.297 | 1.314 | 75% | 2,8% | 1,7% |
| 13 | Hyundai Santa Fe | 1.991 | 2.578 | -23% | 2,5% | 3,3% |
| 14 | Mercedes-Benz G-Class | 1.759 | 2.518 | -30% | 2,2% | 3,2% |
| 15 | Lexus RX | 1.527 | 2.072 | -26% | 1,9% | 2,6% |
| 16 | Kia Sorento | 1.444 | 2.501 | -42% | 1,8% | 3,2% |
| 17 | Mercedes-Benz GLS | 1.359 | 553 | 146% | 1,7% | 0,7% |
| 18 | BMW X7 | 1.268 | 157 | 708% | 1,6% | 0,2% |
| 19 | Tesla Model X | 1.227 | 1.592 | -23% | 1,5% | 2,0% |
| 20 | Toyota Land Cruiser | 1.157 | 1.699 | -32% | 1,4% | 2,1% |
| 21 | Ford Edge | 1.032 | 2.295 | -55% | 1,3% | 2,9% |
| 22 | Jeep Grand Cherokee | 970 | 1.815 | -47% | 1,2% | 2,3% |
| 23 | Maserati Levante | 521 | 887 | -41% | 0,6% | 1,1% |
| 24 | Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe | 399 | 1.475 | -73% | 0,5% | 1,9% |
| 25 | Lamborghini Urus | 313 | 235 | 33% | 0,4% | 0,3% |
| 26 | Land Rover Defender | 307 | 0 | New | 0,4% | 0,0% |
| 27 | Bentley Bentayga | 250 | 207 | 21% | 0,3% | 0,3% |
| 28 | Ford Explorer | 138 | 0 | New | 0,2% | 0,0% |
| 29 | SsangYong Rexton | 120 | 555 | -78% | 0,1% | 0,7% |
| 30 | Rolls Royce Cullinan | 106 | 120 | -12% | 0,1% | 0,2% |
| 31 | Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero / Shogun | 72 | 232 | -69% | 0,1% | 0,3% |
| 32 | Mitsubishi Pajero Sport | 31 | 80 | -61% | 0,0% | 0,1% |
| 33 | Infiniti QX70 | 0 | 17 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| Segment total | 80.710 | 79.309 | 2% |
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.