THE BREAKDOWN
- SUVs now have a nearly 60-percent share on the continent.
- The Dacia Sandero still beats them all.
- Sedans, hatchbacks, and wagons are on a slippery slope.
Europeans, yours truly included, once looked down on Americans because we preferred smaller cars to gas-guzzling SUVs. However, the past few years have shown we’re not any better. Oversized, high-riding models have also taken over the Old Continent. SUVs held a 41.3 percent market share in 2020, but that figure is now approaching 60 percent.
A report from market research company Dataforce, cited by Automotive News Europe, shows that SUVs now account for 59.2 percent of new vehicle sales in Europe. Volkswagen is the undisputed leader in this hugely popular segment with the T-Roc and Tiguan. The former grew by 4.5 percent through the first 11 months of 2025, reaching 196,123 units. During the same period, its bigger brother blossomed by one percent to 180,562 units.
However, as I’ve tried to explain in an op-ed a while ago, cars haven’t been completely defeated yet. Through November, two non-SUVs were the most popular vehicles in Europe. Despite falling by 8.7 percent, the Dacia Sandero grabbed the number-one spot with 225,862 units sold.
Dataforce lists the mechanically related Renault Clio in second place, with 206,583 vehicles sold, or 5.2 percent more than in the same period of 2024. The French subcompact hatchback is likely to have a strong 2026, considering the next-generation model is hitting the streets this year.
Although the Sandero and Clio are still going strong, the hatchback segment is on a downward spiral. It represented 35 percent of all vehicle sales at the beginning of the decade, but now accounts for just 23.9 percent. In raw numbers, hatchback sales fell from 4.2 million units in 2020 to a projected 2.9 million in 2025.
The rise of crossovers and SUVs has also taken its toll on sedans. The traditional body style held a 4.7 percent share in 2020 when sales reached 565,244 units, but has since dropped to 3.5 percent or about 426,000 vehicles. Similarly, wagons have suffered a setback, with market share shrinking from 10.2 to 7.1 percent over the same five-year interval.
But numbers don’t necessarily tell the whole story. Automakers and journalists alike may have broadened the definition of an SUV too much. The Toyota Yaris Cross may be the sixth most popular vehicle in Europe in 2025, but the fact of the matter is, it’s a jacked-up hatchback. Likewise, the Peugeot 2008, which ranks eighth, is also a hatch on stilts. Marketing teams have done an excellent job of luring customers into crossovers over their equivalent (and usually cheaper) hatchback siblings.
Still, not everyone has been pulled onto the SUV bandwagon. Pricing remains the dominant factor, which helps explain why the Sandero and Clio continue to sell in droves. Cars such as the Peugeot 208, Opel Corsa, Toyota Yaris, Citroën C3, and Skoda Octavia all made it into the top 20 of Europe’s best-selling vehicles in 2025.
Sources: Automotive News Europe, Dataforce
