Little ones are doing well
‘The rise of the SUV knows no bounds, everyone wants an SUV!’ However? That actually turns out not to be so bad in the Netherlands, because for most car brands the most popular model is not an SUV at all.
SUVs are ‘hot’. That is true, and this article is not going to change that at all. When car manufacturers come up with something new, it is increasingly an SUV or SUV-like, with the latter crossover form seeming to be gaining some popularity recently. The SUV is very popular worldwide, but in the Netherlands, based on the sales figures, it seems that the popularity of large cars is still somewhat better than expected.
We draw this conclusion based on the sales figures for the first 11 months of 2023. We ignore the brands that sold a total of less than 1,000 cars in that period, because we have used the figures for such niche brands for this small not much research. Of the 31 brands that remain, 18 are where the most popular model is not an SUV. We pick out some striking ones: at Audi, the A3 is in first place by some distance and at Kia and Hyundai, the small Picanto and i10 are doing the best, although Hyundai’s Tucson SUV is just below. Mercedes scores the most with the CLA and Opel, Peugeot, Renault and Seat are unable to find B-segment hatchbacks (Clio, Corsa). In a relative sense, this even applies to Citroën, where the old C3 is still the most popular model.
Within the 17 there is one brand that deserves a big comment: BMW. According to the Bovag sales figures, the i4 is number one, but only because electric models and their non-electric equivalents are counted as separate models in this list. If we don’t do that, the X1/iX1 will do by far the best.
| Most popular models | Number | SUV? | |
| Audi | A3 | 3376 | No |
| BMW | i4 | 2899 | No* |
| BYD | Atto 3 | 962 | Yes |
| Lemon | C3 | 2054 | No |
| Cupra | Born | 1130 | No |
| Dacia | Sandero | 2222 | No |
| Fiat | 500 | 4224 | No |
| Ford | Kuga | 3555 | Yes |
| Hyundai | i10 | 4232 | No |
| Jeep | Avenger | 911 | Yes |
| Kia | Picanto | 10144 | No |
| Land Rover | RR Sports | 838 | Yes* |
| Lynk & Co | 01 | 6048 | Yes* |
| Mazda | CX-5 | 2387 | Yes |
| Mercedes | CLA | 1,471 | No |
| MG | 4 | 2362 | No |
| Mini | Mini | 3436 | No |
| Mitsubishi | Space Star | 1501 | No |
| Nissan | Qashqai | 3173 | Yes |
| Opel | Corsa | 5737 | No |
| Peugeot | 208 | 8925 | No |
| Polestar | 2 | 1780 | No* |
| Porsche | Cayenne | 727 | Yes |
| Renault | Clio | 3963 | No |
| Seat | Ibiza | 2823 | No |
| Skoda | Enyaq | 4586 | Yes |
| Suzuki | Vitara | 1893 | Yes |
| Tesla | Model Y | 12254 | Yes |
| Toyota | Yaris Cross | 5608 | Yes |
| Volkswagen | Polo | 6845 | No |
| Volvo | XC40 | 7541 | Yes |
*=note, see text
Within the selection of car brands we also find brands that either exclusively offer SUVs or do not offer SUVs. With those brands – Land Rover, Lynk & Co and Polestar – there is in fact no choice, which means they are actually irrelevant to this story. If we do not count them and do the same with BMW for the above reason, then we are left with 27 brands, of which ‘only’ 11 have an SUV as their most popular model.
It is certainly not scientifically sound, but just for fun we will also look at the total sales numbers of the cars in this list. If we take the latter, shorter list as a starting point, then the ‘numbers 1’ with an SUV carriage account for a total of 43,597 cars sold, while the non-SUVs represent 64,445 registered cars. Just so you know.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl