- B-segment cars continue to grow in 2014 in the European market, thanks to the good performance of traditional models like the Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio, Volkswagen Polo or Opel Corsa, and partly due to strong growth in the SUV body B - segment with the Renault Captur, Opel Mokka and Peugeot 2008. This body already accounts for 16% of B-segment vehicle sales in 2014.

- B segment SUVs (body initiated by the Nissan Juke) will make further progress in the years 2015 and 2016, since Fiat has just launched the 500X (derived from the recent Jeep Renegade), Honda will launch its new HRV (derived from the Japanese Vezel version), next year Toyota will launch a competitor to the Honda HRV, Hyundai and Kia also announced new SUVs in segment B and finally Ford has decided to make changes to the Ecosport SUV imported from India to Europe and to make this model increasingly competitive compared to the to other vehicles available on the same market.

- The gap is closing between B - segment (33% of the European market) and C  - segment (38% of the European market).
All other segments are down. The D - segment has gradually decreased from 19% of the market in 2000 to 13% in 2014, the A segment after the sales boost caused by scrappage schemes (2008-2009-2010) fell in 2014 to its year 2000 level, finally E segment decreased by half (from 10% in2000 to §% in 2014).

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- The Fiat 500 is the best selling car of the A segment in Europe in 2014, as in 2013. Between 2004 and 2012 the market leader was the Fiat Panda and before that the Renault Twingo ruled between 1995 and 2003. Its important to see that currently the Fiat 500 and the Fiat Panda are competing on the same market but aren't poaching each other’s market share.

- A-segment, which is currently the 4th largest segment behind segments C, B and D vehicles. It accounts for 9% of European sales, against 38% for segment C, 33% for segment B and 13% for segment D. For years A segment usually accounts for one out of ten sales, on the other hand this is no longer true when the government implements scrappage schemes, that benefit A segment the most.

- In 2014, the Fiat 500 holds 1,2% of the European market, but 13,6% of sales in segment A. It was originally launched in a 3 door version and later on a 5 door version (500 L, launched in 2012). After that a 5 door SUV version was launched  in 2014 (The fiat 500 X) but, both 500L and 500X are large and should be integrated in the B segment.

- The Fiat 500’s main competitors are the Fiat Panda (13,4% of segment A), Volkswagen Up (10,9% of segment A), Renault Twingo (7,3% of segment A), Hyundai i10 (7,1% of segment A), Toyota Aygo (6,0% of segment A), Peugeot 107/108 (5% of segment A), Opel Adam (4,9% of segment A) et Citroën C1 (4,8% of segment A).

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- Toyota Motor Corporation, which controls around 30 percent of the Vietnamese automotive market, is maintaining its leading position in the country. In the first 10 months of 2014, automobile sales volume went up 20.3 percent from the previous year to 32,000 units. The Vios, whose fully-remodeled version was launched in March 2014, increased 67.4 percent to 7,147 units, taking top position by surpassing the Fortuner. After the release of the fully-remodeled Corolla Altis in September 2014, the Fortuner, Innova and Hilux are also scheduled to undergo full-model change between the second half of 2015 and the beginning of 2016.

- As of November 2014, Toyota Motor's local sales network consisted of 38 shops of which nine were in Hanoi and 10 in Ho Chi Minh City, accounting for half of the automaker's entire sales network in Vietnam. Along with the increase in consumers in cities, Toyota Motor is increasingly facing insufficient sales network.

- Looking at production, the automaker is developing a mechanism for human resources training and quality assurance and explores new suppliers. Additionally, before the abolition of tariff in 2018 on automobiles imported from  other ASEAN  countries,  Toyota Motor is considering revising its local production system. Automobiles imported from Thailand are calculated to be 20 percent cheaper than locally-made products. For this reason, Toyota Motor is asking the Vietnamese government to introduce support policies for local production. If not, Toyota Motor is threatening to discontinue local assembly. As of November 2014, the Vietnamese government did not take any concrete steps toward resolving this issue. If the current situation continues, it is likely that the automaker will not increase local investment and gradually decrease the number of locally-made models, replacing them with imported products.

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