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.