Tremendous breakthrough of SUVs in Europe
- European production of cars (EU + Norway + Switzerland + Turkey) changed gradually since 2005. The SUV segment (including crossovers) has become over the years the second segment in terms of volume, just behind the segment B (vehicles such as Renault Clio) and to the C segment (vehicles such as VW Golf).
- All carmakers offer one or more SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicle) in its range. Volkswagen and Renault-Nissan groups lead the market, with respectively the VW Tiguan, Audi Q3, Audi and the Dacia Duster, Nissan Juke and Nissan Qashqai.
- Premium carmakers are also well established in the SUV market. Audi (whose production data are included into Volkswagen Group data), Land Rover, BMW, Daimler and Volvo occupy the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th places in terms of production.
- This SUV market might continue to grow under the push of a developing offer (Renault will launch the Captur and Peugeot the 3008, both manufactured in Europe ) or have peaked.
- In terms of sales, SUV segment occupied 15% of the European market in 2012 (against 12.5% in 2011 and 10.3% in 2010), driven by the success of the Nissan Qashqai (1.7% market share), VW Tiguan (1.2%), Dacia Duster (0.9%) and Nissan Juke (0.8%).
- Note: in the United States, the SUV market represents 30% of sales in 2012.
