European sales of limousines and upper class vehicles were down just 28% in the first half of 2020, to just under 16,500 deliveries. This beats the overall market by 10 percentage points but their share is stable at 0.3% of the total European car market.
And if in Q1 the big news was that traditional leader Mercedes-Benz S-Class was toppled not by just one, but by two BMW’s, in Q2 the best selling nameplate was the all-electric Porsche Taycan, which has knocked the S-Class off the year-to-date podium. The BMW 8-Series holds on to its top spot for now but at this rate the Taycan will lead the charts by next quarter. The BMW 7-Series stays ahead of the S-Class for now, although the latter outsold its rival by a small margin in Q2. An all new Mercedes limousine will arrive later this year, including an all-electric version called EQS which promises to be the pinnacle of EV technology, in the same way we’ve come to expect from a new generation S-Class in the ICE category. With its two models, BMW holds 39.3% share of the Upper Class segment so far this year, but Volkswagen Group does even better at 42.8% with five models from three brands. The Porsche Panamera suffers from cannibalization by the Taycan, but still manages to pass the Audi A8 in Q2. The all-new generation Bentley Flying Spur helps the model outsell the Jaguar XJ, a model due to be replaced this year by an all-electric limousine. The Maserati Quattroporte and Lexus LS see their already low sales volumes in Europe decline by two thirds or more in 2020, while the Rolls Royce Ghost is due for a redesign and the Bentley Mulsanne will be discontinued as the brand hopes to serve its upper class buyers with its top-of-the-line Flying Spur versions.
| Upper class | 2020-H1 | 2019-H1 | Change | 2020 share | 2019 share | 2020-Q2 | |
| 1 | BMW 8-series | 3.661 | 3.214 | 14% | 22,2% | 14,1% | 1.558 |
| 2 | Porsche Taycan | 3.231 | 231 | 1299% | 19,6% | 1,0% | 2.036 |
| 3 | BMW 7-series | 2.818 | 5.057 | -44% | 17,1% | 22,2% | 994 |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz S-Class | 2.695 | 6.079 | -56% | 16,3% | 26,7% | 1.046 |
| 5 | Porsche Panamera | 1.895 | 4.509 | -58% | 11,5% | 19,8% | 988 |
| 6 | Audi A8 / S8 | 1.735 | 2.763 | -37% | 10,5% | 12,1% | 682 |
| 7 | Bentley Flying Spur | 162 | 27 | 500% | 1,0% | 0,1% | 53 |
| 8 | Jaguar XJ | 105 | 398 | -74% | 0,6% | 1,7% | 27 |
| 9 | Maserati Quattroporte | 45 | 138 | -67% | 0,3% | 0,6% | 14 |
| 10 | Lexus LS | 44 | 152 | -71% | 0,3% | 0,7% | 20 |
| 11 | Bentley Mulsanne | 31 | 73 | -58% | 0,2% | 0,3% | 13 |
| 12 | Rolls Royce Ghost | 23 | 52 | -56% | 0,1% | 0,2% | 1 |
| 13 | Aston Martin Rapide | 22 | 53 | -58% | 0,1% | 0,2% | 6 |
| 14 | Rolls Royce Phantom | 21 | 37 | -43% | 0,1% | 0,2% | 8 |
| Segment total | 16.488 | 22.783 | -28% |
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.