Sales of premium large SUVs in Europe declined in 2018 for the second year in a row, after three consecutive years of explosive growth during which 100,000 annual sales were added. In the last two years, the segment has lost 33,000 sales again as volume is back to 255,000 sales, down 6% on 2017. The entire top-5 is down for the year and only 4 out of the 18 remaining players in this class improve their volume this year.
The BMW X5 holds on to the segment lead by the skin of its teeth, less than 250 sales ahead of the Volvo XC90. For the X5, this is its fifth consecutive year on top of the ranking, and for the XC90 it would have been its first win ever, if only it could have found those 250 extra buyers. The X5 is being replaced in 2019, which means it’s likely to storm back ahead again, and this was the Volvo’s only chance for a while.
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