J-segment

The most popular Sport Utility Vehicle in Europe, Nissan Qashqai

J-segment is defined by European Commission^[1] as the segment of the sport utility cars (including off-road vehicles). It approximately corresponds to SUV (Sport Utility Vehicles), CUV (Crossover Utility Vehicles) and pickups segments in North America.

J-segment includes a wide range of vehicles of recent generation of sport utility vehicles; as in the rest of the world, Crossover vehicles are becoming most popular versus the SUV's, although the difference between the two vehicle concepts is becoming more thin and definition mainly driven by the manufacturer marketing.

In Europe, most popular sub-segment is the compact one. Although a proper definition does not exist, generally compact utility vehicles are in the range of 4,100 mm (161 in) to 4,700 mm (185 in) length, also if some exceptions may exist, as the offer in the segment is very wide: depending from the height and width some vehicles may fall into large or small category.

Pickups unlike the United States are not represented in the passenger car segment and are not grouped with suvs or off-roaders, instead are classified as light commercial

European market in 2015 ^[2]

J-segment segment is increasing volumes year by year in Europe; in early 2015, became the second most popular segment (after C-segment overtaking B-segment) with 21.6% market share.

Renault group together with controlled Nissan, mostly due to its innovative products like Nissan Qashqai, Renault Captur, the Nissan Juke, plus the popular entry class Dacia Duster, has the biggest share in the market (25%), followed by Volkswagen with 14% through popular model as VW Tiguan, Audi Q3, Skoda Yeti and Audi Q5.

Hyundai-Kia Group, with main contribution of Kia Sportage and Hyundai ix35, achieves an 8.4% of the segment, followed closely by PSA Peugeot Citroën with 8.1% mainly through Peugeot 2008 and Peugeot 3008.

In 2012, General Motors launched the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka, developed by its Korean division together with its twins Chevrolet Trax and Buick Encore. In 2015, Mokka is the fourth-most sold model in the overall segment, and with its success General Motors group achieved 5.7% of the segment.

Some significant global players such as Ford and FCA have very low penetration in European market segment. FCA Group has a very large offer, thanks mainly to the Jeep brand, but still a scarce penetration (approx. 4.7% in early 2015), mainly related to the recent launches of specific European-based models: the Jeep Renegade and the Fiat 500X.

Ford instead, differently from all its competitors, had only two product in the segment (next to the Ford Kuga, recently launching with success the Ford Ecosport) reaching 4.4% of the segment.

Jeep Renegade is a new entry of FCA Group into the B-SUV segment.

Land Rover Discovery Sport is a new entry of Tata into the C-SUV segment.

Hyundai Santa Fe

Second generation of BMW X6, launched in 2014

Others models includes (segment in parenthesis):

See also

References

1. ↑ "REGULATION (EEC) No 4064/89 - MERGER PROCEDURE" (PDF). Office for Official Publications of the European Communities L-2985 Luxembourg. 
2. ↑ "European car sales analysis February 2015 – models". http://left-lane.com/.