SUVs outsell hatchbacks and sedans in Europe for the first time
High-riders accounted for more than half of European new-vehicle sales in the first half of 2023, with help from Tesla Model YSUVs have overtaken hatchbacks and sedans for the first time in Europe, with sales of high-riders accounting for 51 per cent of the new vehicle market in the first half of 2023.
Fresh data reported by Automotive News Europe shows Europeans snapped up an incredible 3.37 million SUVs in the first six months of this year – up 48 per cent over the same period last year.
According to auto industry analyst Dataforce, dominating European SUV sales was the Tesla Model Y, which found 138,152 customers in the half of 2023 – an incredible 207 per cent improvement on the first half of 2022.
Another strong performer was the Volkswagen T-Roc, with VW selling an impressive 104,465 – a sizeable 32 per cent bump over last year.
Almost breaking the six-figure mark was the Toyota Yaris Cross, which found 96,849 European homes – a 49 per cent increase on the number sold back in H1 2022.
Rounding out the list of the 10 best-selling SUVs in Europe was the Volkswagen Tiguan, Dacia Duster, Hyundai Tucson, Peugeot 2008, Kia Sportage, Renault Captur and Ford Puma.
Unsurprisingly given how crowded most European cities are, light SUVs remain the most popular body style, accounting for 1,133,822 sales – although volumes of slightly larger small SUV weren’t far behind at 999,568 sales.
Despite the dominance of SUVs, small cars still turned out an impressive performance in the first half of this year, with the Dacia Sandero hatch (not sold in Australia) among the top-sellers with 124,190 units.
The Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208 and Renault Clio – none of which are now sold in Australia – all racked up volumes of more than 100,000.
Despite their strong performance, the writing is on the wall for combustion-powered small cars in Europe, where many car-makers claim their most affordable offerings will no long be viable if incoming Euro 7 emissions legislation is implemented in 2025 without changes, as the extra hardware needed would make them too expensive.
A fuel-efficiency standard is now being considered in Australia, where SUVs have long outsold passenger cars.
More than 53 per cent of all new vehicles sold Down Under last year were SUVs and that figure has risen to 56 per cent to August this year, when the Tesla Model Y was not only the nation’s top-selling EV but mid-size SUV, toppling the evergreen Toyota RAV4 – and almost the MG ZS to be Australia’s favourite SUV overall.
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Related: Dacia Sandero topples Volkswagen Golf
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