Automotive News Europe - October 2019 - 18

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

AUTOMAKERS

North stars
Wagons forecast to struggle but survive on strong German, Swedish, Czech demand
NICK GIBBS

ngibbs@crain.com

he station wagon -- a staple on European roads since the 1950s -- is
facing a steady decline as automakers
abandon the segment in favor of vehicles with more global appeal such as
SUVs and crossovers. Wagons were previously popular, particularly with growing families, because they offered more
luggage room than sedans. Today, however, that need for space is being satisfied by SUVs and crossovers, which last
year captured 34 percent of the European market compared with 11 percent
for wagons, according to sales data from
JATO Dynamics.
The market will shrink to 1.5 million by
2025 from 1.7 million this year and almost 2 million in 2016, analyst firm LMC
Automotive predicts. Sales were down
10 percent to 863,626 in the first half.
Automakers with long histories of building wagons such as Citroen, Nissan, Alfa
Romeo and Honda no longer offer them
in Europe. Toyota is down to one wagon,
while Renault, Peugeot and Ford only
have two apiece. Ford could drop to one
if it decides to ax its Mondeo midsize
wagon. Renault had three but has said it
will not build a wagon variant of its new
Clio small car.
"To be honest, we thought about replacing the Clio station wagon, but in
the end we decided not to do so," said
Olivier Brosse, who is Renault program
director for small cars. He added that
many Clio wagon customers would opt
for the new Captur small SUV, which
has 81 liters more trunk space than the
previous generation.

DECLINING INTEREST
Europe first-half wagon sales
by segment; change from H1 2018
Small
75,473
Compact
430,174
Midsize
263,873
Large
92,165
Source: JATO Dynamics

www.autonewseurope.com

-9%
-6%
-15%
-16%

The Octavia Combi compact is Europe's No. 1-selling wagon. It is so popular
that Skoda built almost twice as many wagons as it did hatchback versions
of the car in Europe last year.

Big in Europe

'Diehard' buyers

A big problem for wagons is that they
are widespread in Europe but nearly
non-existent elsewhere. While the body
style was once popular in the U.S.,
wagons have been all but killed there,
first by the rise of the minivan and then
surging demand for SUVs and pickups.
Earlier this year Volkswagen said it
would pull its last two wagons from the
U.S. by year-end.

What is likely to save the wagon from extinction is continued strong demand from
northern and eastern European countries.
Wagons accounted for 17 percent of sales
in Germany, Europe's biggest market, in

Europe accounted for 72 percent of
global wagon sales in 2017, JATO data
shows. "Station wagons are only popular in Europe, and this could be a good
reason to stop producing them in these
challenging times," JATO global analyst
Felipe Munoz said.
Even some European markets are turning
their backs on wagons. In Italy, for example, the body style accounted for 15 percent of sales in 1999, but in the first half
of this year they accounted for 5 percent.
In the UK, wagons also accounted for 5
percent of first-half sales while in France
they stood at just 4 percent.

OCTAVIA DOMINATES
Europe's best-selling wagons by
segment in H1; change from H1 2018
SMALL
1.
2.

Skoda Fabia
Renault Clio

31,841
22,852

-15%
-19%

COMPACT
1.
2.

Skoda Octavia
Ford Focus

92,879
53,068

-2%
2%

54,354
43,682

-27%
-26%

MIDSIZE
1.
2.

VW Passat
Audi A4
Audi A6
BMW 5 series

LARGE
1.
2.

CMY

32,084
21,413

5%
-21%

Source: JATO Dynamics

OCTOBER 2019

http://www.autonewseurope.com

Automotive News Europe - October 2019

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