European sales of limousines and upper class vehicles were down just 11% in the first three quarters of 2020, to just over 29,000 deliveries. This beats the overall market by 17 percentage points but their share is stable at 0.3% of the total European car market.
And as deliveries of the Porsche Taycan continue to gain traction, the all-electric sports sedan has been steadily climbing the ranking, going from 4th place in Q1 to 2nd place after the first half to now top the ranking after Q3. The Taycan was by far the best seller in Q3 and looks set to win the segment in 2020. The BMW 8-Series in the #2 spot confirms why we can’t really call this the limousine segment anymore as the first real limousine in the ranking is the traditional leader Mercedes-Benz S-Class at #3. It passes the BMW 7-Series despite the S-Class being due for a major redesign, including an all-electric version called EQS. As a result of that, expec the S-Class/EQS to top the charts again next year. The Porsche Panamera suffers from cannibalization from the Taycan and loses more than half of its sales so far this year. It barely outsells its sibling Audi A8 in Q3. The all-new Bentley Flying Spur is the biggest winner of the segment, but that’s just because last year was such a slow year for the uber-British upper class sedan. Its high-end versions will replace one of the last true limousines on the market, the Bentley Mulsanne. Rolls Royce has just launched the second generation of its baby model Ghost, which looks set to move ahead of the Maserati Quattroporte and Lexus LS for the full-year ranking.
| Upper class | 2020 Q1-Q3 | 2019 Q1-Q3 | Change | 2020 share | 2020-Q3 | |
| 1 | Porsche Taycan | 6.961 | 562 | 1139% | 23,9% | 3.730 |
| 2 | BMW 8-series | 6.089 | 4.653 | 31% | 20,9% | 2.428 |
| 3 | Mercedes-Benz S-Class | 4.759 | 8.515 | -44% | 16,4% | 2.064 |
| 4 | BMW 7-series | 4.717 | 7.110 | -34% | 16,2% | 1.899 |
| 5 | Porsche Panamera | 2.975 | 6.590 | -55% | 10,2% | 1.080 |
| 6 | Audi A8 / S8 | 2.743 | 3.749 | -27% | 9,4% | 1.008 |
| 7 | Bentley Flying Spur | 267 | 28 | 854% | 0,9% | 105 |
| 8 | Jaguar XJ | 221 | 586 | -62% | 0,8% | 116 |
| 9 | Maserati Quattroporte | 75 | 215 | -65% | 0,3% | 30 |
| 10 | Lexus LS | 75 | 215 | -65% | 0,3% | 31 |
| 11 | Rolls Royce Ghost | 70 | 77 | -9% | 0,2% | 47 |
| 12 | Bentley Mulsanne | 56 | 95 | -41% | 0,2% | 25 |
| 13 | Rolls Royce Phantom | 34 | 81 | -58% | 0,1% | 13 |
| 14 | Aston Martin Rapide | 31 | 74 | -58% | 0,1% | 9 |
| Segment total | 29.073 | 32.550 | -11% |
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.