More Than Half Of All Cars Sold In America Are One Of These

If you want to know where any industry built on long product cycles is going in the near future, just look at what people can’t get enough of right now. Think silverware drawers in dishwashers, water dispensers in refrigerators, and yes, even certain forms of vehicle. The number-crunchers at S&P Global Mobility just published a study of registration data breaking down the most popular vehicle segments in America, and although it’s anecdotally clear that crossovers and full-size trucks have a King Kong grip on the landscape, now it’s analytically clear just how much these things are winning and sedans are losing.

The concept of a sedanocalypse is nothing new. It’s been years since Chrysler killed the 200 and the Dodge Dart, since Ford announced it was winding down several passenger car lines in North America, and since GM mulled over its portfolio and thought it didn’t need that many sedans. However, there’s no medium quite like cold, hard numbers to illustrate that the dominant cars of today aren’t traditional passenger cars.

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Let’s start off with the biggest segment in America, compact utilities. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a reasonably sized tall vehicle with five seats and a hatch is what most Americans need to move people and stuff on everything from the commute to the road trip. Think of it like carcinization, except instead of non-crab crustaceans evolving into crabs, the normal perception of a car is evolving largely into crossovers. These are your Honda CR-Vs, Toyota RAV4s, and Chevrolet Equinoxes, but also smaller two-row body-on-frame SUVs like the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler. Combined, they make up a whopping 21 percent of new registrations through May, which makes sense. They do a lot of stuff exceptionally well for most drivers.

Next up, it’s what’s next up the ladder in the crossover chain. What happens when you have too many kids to fit in a RAV4? You go up in size and look at larger crossovers, probably ones with three rows of seats. S&P Global Mobility calls this class Upper Midsize Utilities, with models like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Hyundai Santa Fe falling into this bracket that makes up 12.3 percent of all registered new vehicles over the first five months of the year.

I hope you’re ready for more crossovers, because the general public sure is. Where there’s room to go bigger, there’s room to go smaller, and that’s exactly what’s happening with the next-most popular segment of vehicle, which S&P Global Mobility confusingly named “Sub-compact plus utilities.” Wait, what the heck is the plus? Well, it’s basically the standard sort of subcompact crossover on sale in America because almost nothing as small as a Mazda CX-3 exists anymore. Models like the Chevrolet Trax, Subaru Crosstrek, and Honda HR-V make up the bulk of this segment that’s earned 12.2 percent market share, although the inclusion of the Ford Bronco Sport is a puzzling one considering it’s more closely aligned with the larger compact segment.

Rounding out the big four is an American cultural icon, the full-size half-ton pickup truck. Chevrolet Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra 1500, Ford F-150, Ram 1500, Toyota Tundra, all rise. Actually, Nissan Titan and Lordstown Endurance, rise from the dead, because S&P Global Mobility has found that Americans had registered 1,502 new Nissan Titans and two Lordstown Endurances through May. Weird. Anyway, this segment makes up 8.2 percent of all new vehicle sales, rounding off the big four.

Yes, this means that sedans, hatchbacks, minivans, and especially wagons are now but a small slice of new vehicles sold in America. The subcompact car is hanging by a boutique thread, sports car options are dwindling, but even the sort of attainable midsize sedan that used to be the default family car has seen its market share cleaved into by crossover dominance. If you want to know where the industry’s going, it’s going to chase the most customers, so expect an even more crossover-heavy mix as the decade drags on.

Top graphic image: Honda

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