EVs, small SUVs are winners in first half

The European car market underwent a big shake-up in the first half as there was a change at the top of nine of the 24 segments tracked by Automotive News Europe.

First-half sales of the Renault Captur small crossover quadrupled to 87,396 units, helping the French automaker overtake the Nissan Juke at the top of Europe's fastest growing volume segment. Automakers increased small SUV and crossover sales in Europe by 89 percent to 390,100 from January to June, according to data from JATO.

Electric cars remained Europe's fastest-growing segment overall, up by 91 percent to 23,826 units. Leading the surge were the Tesla Model S and BMW i3. Demand for last year’s first-half sales lead in the electric niche, the Renault Zoe, declined by almost a quarter dropping the subcompact into fourth place. The Zoe was replaced at the top by the Leaf from Renault’s alliance partner Nissan. Leaf sales in the half rose 56 percent to 7,127 units.

Other significant first-half changes at the top of the segments included: the Fiat 500L overtaking the Ford B-Max for the lead in small minivans; the Ford Fiesta surpassing the Renault Clio in the subcompact class; and the new BMW 4-series getting ahead of Mercedes’ offerings in both the premium coupe and premium convertible niches.

Meanwhile the BMW X5, Citroen C4 Picasso and Mercedes S class reclaimed the No. 1 spots in their respective segments during the half because of strong demand for the new generations of each vehicle.

From January to June, nine of the 24 segments grew at a faster pace than the market, which was by 6 percent to 6.82 million units. Sales in an additional eight segments were in positive territory during the half but didn’t beat the overall market gain. Sales in seven segments were down, ranging between 2 percent and 26 percent.