Sales of compact crossovers in Europe are up 11% in 2019 to 2.36 million, which makes this the fourth largest segment at 15% of the total European car market. This segment has doubled in the last three years and tripled in the last eight years. Big event at the top of the ranking: for the first time since its launch in 2007, the Nissan Qashqai is not the best selling compact crossover in Europe due to a 5% drop in sales while its rival Volkswagen Tiguan gains 6% on 2018, which allows it to claim the segment lead for the first time ever. One caveat to this claim: VW doesn’t publish split figures for the standard Tiguan and the 3-row midsized Tiguan Allspace, which we estimate at 15% of the nameplate’s total. And while the Qashqai lost its crown, 2019 still marks the 10th consecutive year of 200,000+ sales and a new generation will be launched in 2020. The Peugeot 3008 drops below the 200k mark after one year but holds its third place.
Ford has milked out the outgoing second generation Kuga in the last quarter with big discounts before the new generation arrives in 2020. As a result, the Kuga was the #2 best selling compact crossover in Europe in Q4. This also cleared out its remaining stock of inefficient models before the stricter average fleet emissions quota kicked in, while the third generation Kuga will be available with a plug-in hybrid powertrain. However, the new Kuga will grow beyond our size limits for the compact crossover segment (4.35 – 4.60 meters length) and into the midsized crossover segment. The Hyundai Tucson is relatively stable at -1% but therefore loses share, while its sibling model Kia Sportage is down 9%.
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