Sales of compact crossovers continue to surge in Europe, with a 15% gain in 2018 to over 1.7 million sales or 11.1% of the overall market, up from 9.6% in 2017 and 7.7% in 2016. Most of the growth comes from newly launched or very recent models. We’ve decided to separate the tables of the compact and midsized crossover segments but still feature them in one post and in one graph as the models in these classes are so close to each other in size and there are so many different opinions on which models belong in which of these segments.
Combined, sales in these segments are up 15% to 13.7% of the total European car market, and VW Group and Renault-Nissan each control 22% and PSA another 17% of these segments combined, for a whopping 61% share by just three manufacturers. The Nissan Qashqai is still the best selling crossover in Europe, despite losing 7% on its record volume of 2017. Its closest rival is still the Volkswagen Tiguan, down 9% although its figures are estimates, as we don’t have official split figures from the 7-seater Tiguan Allspace and we estimate a 15% take rate for that version, which is featured in the midsized crossover segment. The Peugeot 3008 continues its impressive run and also crosses the 200,000 sales threshold thanks to a 20% increase on last year. When combining these segments, the 3008/5008 duo would be on top of the charts, just ahead of the Qashqai/X-Trail, with the Tiguan trailing at a distance. By any standard an impressive performance from the French brand, and we’re curious to see how the all-new Citroën C5 Aircross will perform once its deliveries start to show its true potential.
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