Small And Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - December 2015 And 2015 Year End

If an automaker wished to sell more new vehicles in the United States in 2015, stocking dealers with more SUVs was typically the answer. 

Sure, Americans were buying more Toyota Corollas, more Ford Mustangs, and more Volkswagen Golf GTIs in 2015 than in 2014. But those are exceptions to the rule: as the American auto industry reported record total new vehicle sales volume in 2015, passenger car volume actually decreased compared with 2014.

The turn toward SUVs and crossovers wasn't just encountered in the mainstream, where all five of America's best-selling utility vehicles (CR-V, RAV4, Escape, Rogue, Equinox) all reported all-time U.S. sales highs. In the luxury sector, particularly amongst more affordable small utilities, U.S. volume exploded in 2015.

---

U.S. Vehicle Sales Rankings By Model - 2015 Year End
U.S. SUV/Crossover Sales Rankings By Model - 2015 Year End

---

The BMW X1 was joined by new German rivals in late 2014. In 2015, sales of the X1 and those two rivals – Mercedes-Benz GLA and Audi Q3 – collectively grew 60% compared with 2014, a gain of 20,000 sales.

Their larger brethren and the rivals of their larger brethren posted a 20% gain, helped along by newbies like the Lexus NX and Land Rover Discovery Sport. The Audi Q5 was America's top-selling small premium utility vehicle in 2015, the sixth consecutive year of growth for the Q5. Yes, 2015 was the seventh year in the first-gen Q5's existence. Though cars often fall into the sales doldrums when left to linger without updates, the Q5 continues to grow in popularity.

But just a half-notch up in size and price sits America's best-selling premium brand crossover, the Lexus RX. The RX isn't "more" popular than all its rivals in the way that an order of large fries at McDonald's includes "more" fries than the medium order. The RX is more like a supersize fries when everyone else is ordering a small. The next-closest competitor in 2015 was the surging Cadillac SRX, but the Cadillac was 31,760 sales back of the RX. 

RX sales declined marginally in 2015 as Lexus ended the year transitioning between generations. The SRX, like the painfully similarly-named RX, is a perfectly reasonable rival for smaller, less popular vehicles like the Q5, Acura RDX, and Lexus's own NX. 

---

Download All GCBC U.S. 2015 Sales Data For $2.99

---

Click Chart To Expand

And further up the ladder in size and price, the story of 2015 was not the most popular luxury SUV. Rather, it was among the most popular luxury SUV, lingered too long in first-gen form, and was finally replaced early in 2015. U.S. sales of the Volvo XC90 hit a seven-year high in 2015, and based on the Q4 pace, Volvo could sell more than 30,000 XC90s in 2015. 

A big deal? In December, the XC90 accounted for a third of Volvo's U.S volume, helping to drive monthly Volvo sales to 9341 units, the highest December output since 2007. 

Globally, Volvo sold more new vehicles in 2015 than at any time in the company's history. In North America, Volvo's not back. Yet. U.S. sales in 2015 were half what Volvo achieved in 2004. But if Volvo's flagship is rising, history suggests other Volvos will follow.

You can click any model name in the tables below to find historical monthly and yearly U.S. auto sales data. You can also select a make and model at GCBC's Sales Stats page. These tables are now sortable, so you can rank luxury SUVs and crossovers any which way you like. Suggestions on how GCBC should break down segments can be passed on through the Contact page.

Click Column Headers To Sort • January 2016 • November 2015 • December 2014

Compact Luxury SUV	December 2015	December 2014	% Change	2015	2014	% Change
Audi Q3	1501	901	66.6%	13,229	3654	262%
BMW X1	1769	2591	-31.7%	14,420	22,808	-36.8%
Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class	2200	2074	6.1%	25,593	6884	272%
---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Total	5470	5566	-1.7%	53,242	33,346	59.7%

Small Luxury SUV	December 2015	December 2014	% Change	2015	2014	% Change
Acura RDX	4942	5156	-4.2%	51,026	44,865	13.7%
Audi Q5	6057	4551	33.1%	52,006	42,420	22.6%
BMW X3	3126	2795	11.8%	31,924	33,824	-5.6%
BMW X4	884	820	7.8%	6429	2709	137%
Infiniti QX50	1453	224	549%	5468	2727	101%
Land Rover Discovery Sport	1674	---	---	7611	---	---
Land Rover LR2	1	74	-98.6%	77	3619	-97.9%
Land Rover Range Rover Evoque	1370	1426	-3.9%	14,583	12,440	17.2%
Lexus NX	5134	2905	76.7%	43,764	2927	1395%
Lincoln MKC	2566	2310	11.1%	24,590	13,077	88.0%
Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class	4062	---	---	4569	---	---
Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class	304	1857	-83.6%	23,333	35,000	-33.3%
Porsche Macan	1382	864	60.0%	13,533	7241	86.9%
Volvo XC60	3510	2079	68.8%	26,134	19,276	35.6%
---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Total	36,465	25,061	45.5%	305,047	220,125	38.6%

Midsize Luxury SUV	December 2015	December 2014	% Change	2015	2014	% Change
Acura MDX	6254	6761	-7.5%	58,208	65,603	-11.3%
Acura ZDX	---	2	-100%	2	78	-97.4%
Audi Q7	1189	1928	-38.3%	18,995	18,517	2.6%
BMW X5	6250	6098	2.5%	54,997	47,031	16.9%
BMW X6	1547	458	238%	7906	3896	103%
Cadillac SRX	7031	4899	43.5%	68,850	53,578	28.5%
Infiniti QX60	4987	3367	48.1%	41,770	31,192	33.9%
Infiniti QX70	697	448	55.6%	5737	5213	10.1%
Land Rover LR4	1315	736	78.7%	9031	4679	93.0%
Land Rover Range Rover Sport	2246	2036	10.3%	21,459	17,897	19.9%
Lexus GX460	3118	2707	15.2%	25,212	22,685	11.1%
Lexus RX	11,899	13,625	-12.7%	100,610	107,490	-6.4%
Lincoln MKT	406	356	14.0%	4696	4800	-2.2%
Lincoln MKX	2960	1669	77.4%	22,199	23,995	-7.5%
Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class	6310	---	---	20,663	---	---
Mercedes-Benz M-Class	330	5625	-94.1%	32,550	46,726	-30.3%
Porsche Cayenne	1230	934	31.7%	16,474	16,205	1.7%
Volkswagen Touareg *	486	605	-19.7%	7037	6961	1.1%
Volvo XC70 *	432	470	-8.1%	5118	5093	0.5%
Volvo XC90	3135	68	4510%	12,777	3952	223%
---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Total	61,822	52,792	17.1%	534,291	485,591	10.3%

Source: Automakers & ANDC
* indicates a vehicle which is also shown in another GCBC segment breakdown
GCBC isn't here to break down segments, an impossible task for any group, but to display sales data for the sake of comparison. The more ways sales data can be displayed, the better. This explains you'll see the XC70 listed with luxury cars as well as with SUVs and crossovers and the Touareg with luxury SUVs and mainstream SUVs... because readers have wanted it both ways. You can always find the sales results for EVERY vehicle and form your own competitive sets by using the All Vehicle Rankings posts.

RECOMMENDED READING
Small & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - January 2016
Small & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - November 2015 YTD
Small & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - December 2014 & Year End
Top 20 Best-Selling SUVs In America - December 2015
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - December 2015 & Year End