"Asia and the Middle East and Africa represent significant growth potential for small cars as rising incomes allow an ever increasing number of consumers to transition from a motorbike to owning a car for the first time," said Neil King, automotive analyst at Euromonitor International. "Small cars are forecast to grow 3 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2014 and 2030 but this is secondary to the projected CAGR of 4.7% for SUVs."
Sports-utility vehicles (SUVs) have been the leader in the global automotive category with sales more than trebling between 2000 and 2014 to reach 16.4 million, significantly outperforming the overall automotive market which expanded by 61% over the same period.
Euromonitor's income distribution data suggests that an increasing number of consumers in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia and China will be in a position to trade up from traditional smaller cars to SUVs. By 2016, sales of SUVs will surpass today's largest vehicle segment, lower medium cars such as the VW Golf and Toyota Corolla.
"Key social changes such as urbanisation, increased female employment, smaller households and an ageing population in conjunction with increasing emissions regulations are some of the reasons the small car segment is growing quickly," concluded King. "By 2030, global volumes f0r light vehicles will reach 133 million."
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