European consumers' persistent appetite for SUVs and crossovers was no longer enough to lift the overall European market. In the first half, SUV/crossover sales increased by 5.9 percent to slightly more than 3 million units, boosting their market share to a new high of 36.1 percent, up from 33.2 percent during the same period last year.
Although 171,569 more SUVs and crossovers were sold from January to June, the surge failed to overcome a combined loss by sedans, station wagons, coupes, convertibles and minivans of 389,044 units, down 6.7 percent to 5.42 million units compared with the first half of 2018.
The end result is that the overall market declined by 2.5 percent to 8.48 million in the half, according to figures from market researcher JATO Dynamics.