A new year is always a nice opportunity to reflect on the past year and in our case, that means looking at which cars have sold disappointingly slow in 2015 and which do we expect to disappoint in 2016. We’ll also look at which cars or brands have surprised from a sales volume point of view in a separate article.
Which cars had disappointing sales in 2015:
DS

The European luxury market is a tough place if you’re a non-German brand, so if you want to make it here, you’d better get your act together quickly, DS.
Honda

I don’t understand anymore what the added value of Honda is for the European car market: they’re not particularly more reliable than their competitors, not particularly stylish or fuel efficient, and they don’t have any hybrids anymore.
Meanwhile, the Accord, Insight and CR-Z have been put out of their misery, leaving the brand with just four models. The introduction of the Honda Civic station wagon hasn’t helped the model at all, with sales virtually flat on last year.
Honda has had a fantastic 2015 worldwide, with sales records in more than a handful countries, but its European sales have been lingering for years, to the point where they’re selling as many cars a month in the US as they do in a whole year in Europe.
Do it right or don’t do it at all, Honda. If you’re not committed to the European market, you might as well pull out entirely.
Hyundai i20

Surely, the new generation i20 has improved further on that annual record, and has even become the best selling Hyundai model in 2015 as the former leader ix35 suffered from the introduction of the Tucson as its replacement. But the improvement has been only slightly: up less than 10% and the new model has even lost volume on the old one from September to November. And that’s despite the addition of the i20 Coupe and the i20 Active.
I had expected the new i20 to take a significant step to close in on the top-8 of the subcompact segment, but so far it’s still outside of the top-10 at less than a third of the volume of the three segment leaders.
Which cars may sell disappointingly in 2016:
Ford

Take for example the Ford EcoSport: a small SUV designed to be sold in developing markets like India and South America, where the standards for ride, refinement and interior quality are lower than in Europe. As a result, the EcoSport struggled to gain acceptance in the very competitive segment. Only after they made some improvements to the model, its sales started to rise, but still a long way from the leaders in the segment. In 2016, Ford will make the same mistake again, as the new generation Ka minicar is no longer a co-operation with the top-selling minicar brand in Europe (Fiat builds the current Ka on the same platform as the 500 and Panda), but by importing one that’s been developed for Brazil and whose styling a) doesn’t remind of the characteristic first generation Ka and b) won’t appeal to European buyers. Remember the Volkswagen Fox? That was a similar mistake.
Ford has just launched the new Mustang in Europe for the first time ever, but that will remain a niche product, while the upcoming Edge large SUV is simply too “American” for the taste of Europeans and will struggle against the established competition Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe.
Also, the new Mondeo doesn’t seem to catch on and was launched two years too late (hello Honda), and so are the new Galaxy and S-Max, whose designs also have changed too little to attract new buyers or to compete against the revolutionary new Renault Espace.
Then their top-selling Fiesta is getting a bit long in the tooth new, already 7 years old, and the Focus will lose some sales to the new Opel/Vauxhall Astra and to a lesser degree the new Renault Megane.
If Ford wants to hold on to its #2 position in Europe, it really needs to launch more appealing products, as that’s exactly what its challengers Renault and Opel/Vauxhall are doing right now.
Dacia

Infiniti Q30 / QX30

The all-new Infiniti Q30 hatchback and Infiniti QX30 crossover (or just Q30 with higher ground clearance?) are both based on the platform of the Mercedes-Benz GLA crossover and even share some interior parts with the Benz. They are undoubtedly going to be the brand’s best selling vehicles in Europe and should help Infiniti gain a foothold in the hard-fought luxury market, helping it to close in on Lexus.
However, the factory in the UK has a capacity of 60.000 annual units for both models, half of which I expect to be planned for Europe, but I simply don’t see 30.000 sales from a brand with limited showrooms, limited awareness and a current volume of less than a fifth of that figure.
I really want them to succeed, I like Infiniti for being bold and ambitious and I think they’re on the right track with their model policy (except for the QX50…), but I also think they’re expecting too much too soon.