European market booms

New-car buyers are shifting quickly from small cars to small SUVs as European new-car sales continued to rise, posting the best first half to a year since before the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

The Continent soaked up 8.09 million cars in the first six months of 2016, growing 9.1 per cent on 2015 to post the highest total since 2008.

While the sales slowed in June, to grow at just 6.5 per cent overall, they peaked in June at 15 per cent, before the United Kingdom's post-Brexit turmoil saw it slow down markedly, compared to the remaining EU nations.

While the Volkswagen Golf remained the biggest selling car in Europe and Volkswagen retained its title as the biggest selling badge, the brand grew just 0.6 per cent, losing almost a full per cent of market share from its 12.1 per cent high in the first half of 2015.

With 269,400 sales in Europe in the first half of the year, the Golf claimed 3.3 per cent of the entire new-car market, although as an established model its volume was two per cent lower than a year ago.

At the other end of the scale, French brand Renault leapt forward by 15 per cent, comfortably climbing over the top of Peugeot, Opel and Ford to become the second-biggest car maker in Europe during the first half of the year. It's not all good news however, because its joint-venture partner, Nissan, lost 1.5 per cent of market share.

While Fiat also grew on the back of a strong domestic market, the volume brand was yet again outpaced and outsold by the higher-profit premium badges from Germany – Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz – all of which posted double-digit growth.

There were share losses aplenty among the traditional European small car heavyweights, including the Ford Fiesta, the Renault Clio, the aging Volkswagen Polo and the Opel Corsa, as a new trend emerged in Europe.

Small SUVs and crossovers are booming and taking market share from the old-school hatchbacks. The winners include Renault's Captur, the Fiat 500X and the Peugeot 2008.

B-segment SUVs accounted for 8.3 per cent of the European market in H1 2015 and that grew to 9.4 per cent this year, while similar-sized cars saw their share drop from 22.6 per cent to 21.4 per cent in what looks like a neat switch.

Almost one in four new vehicles sold in Europe this year was an SUV or crossover, which was a 24 per cent jump on 2015, while sports car sales leapt 31 per cent on the back of Mazda's new MX-5 and Fiat's 124 orders.