Chevy Spark regains leadership of the rapidly-shrinking segment
Sales in the US minicar segment fell by 26.0% to 18,779 in the first quarter of 2018, making it the second fastest-shrining segment in early 2018, ahead of only the small sports segment. This performance is a continuation of the segments recent downward trend (it shrank by 20.0% in 2017), and suggests a grim future for the entire segment. Given [Read more…]
Segment growth tops 25% thanks in large part to Chevy Bolt, despite Tesla Model 3 struggles
Having analyzed 2017 sales of hybrid green cars and PHEV green cars, let’s look at the final green segment: electric vehicles, or EV for short. Sales of EV vehicles rose by 19.2% to 29,486 in the fourth quarter of 2017, while overall sales in 2017 rose by 25.9% to 104,195. This makes this the second-fastest of all types of vehicles, second only [Read more…]
Segments shrinks by a fifth and ends 2017 at the bottom of the mainstream heap
Sales in the US minicar segment fell by 9.6% to 22,199 in the fourth quarter of 2017. This makes it the third quarter in a row that sales in the segment have declined, although the rate of decline was considerably slower than in either Q2 or Q3, when the segment shrunk by 43% and 27%, respectively. Overall, the segment shrunk by 20.0% in 2017, the [Read more…]
The collapse of the Minicar segment continues
After briefly returning to growth in the first quarter of 2017, the minicar segment in the United States fell back into the red in the second quarter of this year, and firmly remained there in the third quarter, even if the 36% fall in sales in Q3 was slightly less bad than the 47% drop recorded in Q2. All in all, sales in the minicar segment were only 63,023 over the first three quarters of 2017, down from 90,095 in 2016, which is roughly how many Toyota RAV4s are sold in a month and a half!
Minicar segment collapsed in the second quarter of 2017, with only Mitsubishi Mirage recording YTD sales gains
After briefly returning to growth in the first quarter of 2017, the Minicar segment in the United States fell back into the red in the second quarter of this year. And what a fall it was – sales fell by almost a half compared to Q2’16, to only 19,019 units, the largest fall from among all segments by a wide margin.
The Minicar segment in the United States has returned to growth in 2017 after an abysmal 2016 when sales dipped with double digits. In the first quarter of 2017, sales of North America’s smallest vehicles grew by 8.5% to 27,388 units. Fueling this increased demand were the new generation Chevrolet Spark and the facelift of the Mitsubishi Mirage, which have now taken over the first two spots of the segment podium, knocking the former leader Mini Cooper down to third. The Fiat 500 appears to have hit rock bottom and slightly recovers this year
With a bit of a delay we’ll start with the European segment analyses for 2016, starting of course with the minicar segment. Sales of minicars in Europe were stable in 2016 with 1,33 million units sold, compared to an overall market growth of 6,2%. Fiat still holds the top 2 spots of the podium and grows its share of the segment to over 28%, but after 3 years of Fiat 500 reign the Fiat Panda has reclaimed leadership of the segment it led from 2004 until 2012. The Volkswagen Up! holds on to its third place but loses 8% of its volume. The Renault Twingo, leader of the segment between 1999 and 2003, is knocked down into 5th place by the Hyundai i10 and feels the Toyota Aygo breathing down its neck. All three models lose volume in 2016. The Smart Fortwo is the biggest winner in the top-10 with sales up 21%, jumping four places on 2015 and two places on Q3 of 2016. The small two seater even outsold the Aygo in Q4. [Read more…]
The Minicar segment in the United States has been hurt badly by the low gasoline prices in 2016, with sales down 11.0%, the worst fall from all the segments. However, the situation improved markedly for the segment in Q4, when it was the only segment to substantial growth (5.6 percent), driven mainly by substantial sales growth for models: Chevrolet Spark and Mitsubishi Mirage.
With a bit of a delay we’ll start with the European segment analyses for the first three quarters of 2016, starting of course with the minicar segment. After growing 5% in the first half of the year, sales of Europe’s smallest cars have dropped in Q3, reducing the year-to-date growth rate to just 1%. The slowdown of the Volkswagen Up! and the Fiat Panda are largely responsible for this, and this has enabled the Fiat 500 to outsell its sibling in Q3 and threaten it for the segment’s full year top position which it has held since 2013. The third place of the Up! appears unthreatened, but the Renault Twingo has dropped from 4th place in the first half to 6th place after nine months after being outsold by the Toyota Aygo and Hyundai i10. The latter of these two was the #3 seller of the segment in Q3, even topping the little VW. The Lancia Ypsilon holds on to its 7th place, but all five of its closest challengers in places 8 to 12 were within 150 sales of each other in Q3 and all outsold the Ypsilon this quarter.
The minicar segment in the United States is hurt badly by the low gasoline prices, with sales down 21.6% in the first three quarters of 2016, with not a single model improving on last year. Now that we have more detailed data for the Mini brand, we can better compare the models in this segment, as for example the Mini Clubman station wagon really can’t be called a minicar anymore, let alone that it would be cross-shopped with the Chevrolet Spark. The Mini data in this table consist of the Hardtop 2-door and 4-door and the Convertible. Sales of those three models combined showed a drop of 34% compared to the first three quarters of 2015, which means that there’s a new segment leader: the Chevrolet Spark.