The SUV has replaced the small car as the most popular car class in Europe. According to market watcher Jato Dynamics, around 3,2 million of the off-road vehicles suitable for city use were newly registered in 2015. This corresponds to a market share of 22,5 percent and for the first time brings the SUV to the top of the sales charts. Small cars had a market share of 22 percent in the same period, the compact class reached 20,6 percent.
A year earlier, SUVs were in third place in Europe with 19,8 percent. The segment with the most registrations in 2014 was the small car with 22,7 percent, followed by the compact models with 21,3 percent market share.
The growth in the SUV is mainly due to the small models, which have been pushing the market for several years. A total of 1,2 million mini-SUVs were newly registered by cutting a Renault Captur, Opel Mokka or Peugeot in 2008. However, the best-selling SUV remains the compact model Nissan Qashqai with 232.176 new registrations. The compact models received a total of 1,28 million new registrations.
The most requested car in Europe was still the VW Golf with 533.584 units. In 2015, a total of 14,2 million new cars were registered in Europe (EU and the EFTA countries Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland).