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After five years of domination, the Audi A3 is no longer the best selling compact car from a luxury brand in Europe. In 2018, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class topped the charts for the very first time, as the overall segment shrank for the second year in a row, to below 800,000 sales, 5.2% of the entire European car market. The A-Class, helped by the introduction of the fourth generation, gained 7% to set the nameplate’s highest annual sales figure since 2005 at over 150,000 sales. The A3 lost 13% of its sales while the BMW 1-series was down 7% and was stuck in third place. Just off the podium we find two MPV models, of which the BMW 2-series Active/Gran Tourer is still the best seller despite losing 20% of its sales, as the Mercedes-Benz B-Class is down just 6%. The Mercedes-Benz CLA is down 9% which means it maintains is share of the segment, despite slowly starting to age.
The Volvo V40 feels cannibalized from its new crossover sibling XC40 and loses a fifth of its sales volume, dropping 2 places in the rankings. The BMW 2-series Coupe & Convertible are the best performers of the segment in 2018 with an 18% gain, now outselling the Alfa Romeo Giulietta and the Mini Clubman. These two are even under threat from the BMW i3 which sees its sales increase by 15% to its best ever annual volume. When combining all models of each brand in this class, Mercedes-Benz holds on to the segment lead with flat sales at around 273,000, while BMW sales are down 7% to just over 255,000 and Audi is down 13% with its single model.
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