The premium large car segment in Europe is in dire straits with a loss of 6% in 2016 but a more painful -13% in Q4. Only one model in the top-10 manages to improve its volume: the new leader Mercedes-Benz E-Class, helped by the new generation. The E-Class was up 17% for the year and an even more impressive 32% in Q4. To be fair, this includes sales of the coupe version, which Audi doesn’t offer in this class and BMW has split off from the 5-Series as the 6-Series. The Audi A6 and BMW 5-series are actually impressively stable considering their age compared to the fresh E-Class. The A6 was down just 2% (-10% in Q4) and its new generation isn’t expected until 2018, while the 5-Series lost 8% (-2% in Q4) while the new generation had already been revealed and has entered showrooms early 2017.
Volvo has taken a big hit this year with the very slow changeover from the S80/V70/XC70 to the new S90/V90. The former are down by more than 20,000 units as sales have all but come to a halt in Q4, while the latter only managed 3,716 sales, of which just 1,968 in the last quarter. Of course sales will pick up again in 2017 as the 90-Series has enough qualities to help the Swedish brand gain ground on the Germans, but it’s striking how Audi manages to keep sales of its models so stable during a changeover while Volvo clearly took a big hit in 2016. The Jaguar XF held on to the #5 spot with almost stable sales as it was renewed in 2015. In fact, the XF improved 23% in the fourth quarter of 2016, because the new generation was just in start-up mode in that same period a year earlier.
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