E-segment

E-segment (or executive cars) is defined by European Commission[1] as the fifth segment in European market car classification. It approximately corresponds to Full-size car and Mid-size luxury car segment in North America, or Executive car in British English terminology.

E-Segment is a niche in Europe (3% penetration in 2017) and mostly premium cars are present here.

The Mercedes E-Class is the best-selling model, followed by BMW 5 Series and Audi A6.

The Volvo S90 is the most recent entry in the market, making its debut in 2016. The V70/XC70 have been discontinued.

These cars are usually denoted for their length (equal to or above 5,000 mm) and luxury interior styling. Body types are very diverse in this segment, this includes sedans, wagons and hatchbacks. Being large, they are also often used as taxis in certain countries.

Several carmakers, especially mainstream manufacturers whose best selling models have traditionally been superminis and smaller family cars, have withdrawn from the E-segment since the 1990s. The first notable example was Ford, who discontinued the Scorpio in 1998 without launching a direct replacement, although this decision came around the same time that Ford purchased Volvo, who had been long established in this sector, and at the time Ford also owned Jaguar. The decision to axe the Scorpio without a successor came due to falling sales as well as the rising popularity of MPVs, SUVs and well-equipped large family cars. The earlier Granada, on the other hand, had been a strong seller for Ford, regularly featuring among the top 10 selling cars in Britain during the 1970s and early 1980s.

General Motors axed its Omega (badged as a Vauxhall in the British market) in 2003 without replacing it. The original Omega had been European Car of the Year for 1987. However, in 2007, Vauxhall started selling in the United Kingdom the VXR8, which fills spiritually the void of the Monaro VXR and of the Omega, the former in performance and the latter in the segment.

In its first and second generations, Škoda Superb took advantage from the lengthened wheelbase of the Volkswagen Passat, the same way as the Audi A6 still uses, with other features which were not possible in the original Passat. The third generation lost those advantages of extra features and is just a regular large family car with partially longer wheelbase in comparison to the original Volkswagen Passat.

Rover, when still under the ownership of BMW in the late 1990s, replaced its 800 Series and 600 Series saloons with the Rover 75, which was designed to compete at the upper end of the D-segment. Peugeot took a similar step in 2010 when replacing the 407 and long-running but unpopular 607 with a single model, the 508.

Renault discontinued the unsuccessful flagship Vel Satis in 2009 without replacing it in Europe, its chances of sales success probably not being helped by its unconventional styling, as well as the lack of a premium badge.

European sales figures

[2]

2017
rank		ManufacturerModel2013 sales2014 sales2015 sales2016 sales2017 sales% change
(2016–2017)
1 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 106,559 99,565 84,771 99,494 127,638 Increase +28.3%
2 BMW 5 Series 107,307 98,701 88,898 81,599 109,953 Increase +34.7%
3 Audi A6 / A6 allroad / S6 / RS6 82,883 84,283 95,329 93,479 78,944 Decrease –15.5%
4 Volvo S90 / V90 — — — 10,834 55,193 Increase +409.4%
5 Tesla Model S 3,928 8,868 15,231 11,564 16,026 Increase +38.6%
6 Jaguar XF 20,414 20,609 16,416 16,024 12,501 Decrease –22.0%
7 Audi A7 Sportback / S7 / RS7 8,986 8,473 10,196 9,120 6,111 Decrease –33.0%
8 BMW 6 Series 8,549 7,880 7,370 5,732 5,610 Decrease –2.1%
9 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class 15,139 10,289 12,600 7,803 5,116 Decrease –34.4%
10 Maserati Ghibli 339 4,238 4,644 4,124 2,981 Decrease –27.7%
11 Lexus GS 1,922 2,032 1,373 2,023 1,508 Decrease –25.5%
12 Volvo V70 / XC70 40,260 46,348 49,263 30,436 511 Decrease –98.3%
13 Infiniti Q70 339 145 560 484 362 Decrease –25.2%
14 Genesis G80 — 163 228 131 49 Decrease –62.6%
15 Chrysler/Lancia 300C/Thema 2,236 392 28 19 16 Decrease –15.8%
16 Volvo S80 3,220 3,042 2,329 849 6 Decrease –99.3%
Total — — — — — 373,727 422,525 Increase +13.1%

Current E-segment cars

5-door models

See also

References

  1. ↑ "REGULATION (EEC) No 4064/89 - MERGER PROCEDURE" (PDF). Office for Official Publications of the European Communities L-2985 Luxembourg.
  2. ↑ http://carsalesbase.com/european-sales-2017-premium-large-segment/
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