Struggle street: the cars yet to pass 25 sales so far this year
From niche propositions to expensive, once-in-a-lifetime splurges, these are the cars few people are buying.
The new-car market has been competitive and cutthroat for a while, but the first half of 2020 increased the pressure to perform.
With production delays due to coronavirus, a raft of exciting new models on the horizon, electric and hybrid cars upping their game and buyers facing financial limitations, every new vehicle on the market had to fight harder than ever to succeed.
We already know about the best-sellers (in a nutshell: utes and SUVs), but what about the cars that have flown under the radar for the first five months of 2020?
These are the models that persist to exist on the market despite often single-figure sales – either because they're a niche proposition, a small-volume cult favourite, or prohibitively expensive.
In some cases – usually for ultra-high-end brands like McLaren or Morgan – sales are so limited that all models in the marque are grouped together by body type, without distinguishing one from another. This is done to save the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) the trouble of reporting zero or single-unit sales at length.
We've already farewelled a number of discontinued models this year, so for the sake of fairness we've excluded any axed cars from this list, as well as any relatively new arrivals.
With that in mind, here are the cars that have sold less than 25 examples in the first five months of 2020 – in alphabetical order.
NB: Sales numbers refer to the number of cars sold from January 1, 2020 to May 30, 2020.
Alpine A110 – 1 sold
Audi A8 – 7
Audi R8 – 0
Audi TT – 18
Bentley sedan – 7
NB: This groups sales of the Mulsanne and Flying Spur together.
Citroën C3 – 22
Citroën C5 Aircross – 22
Fiat Doblo – 10
Genesis G80 – 16
Honda NSX – 0
Jaguar XF – 14
Jaguar F-Type – 7
Lexus LC – 8
Lexus LS – 11
Lotus Elise – 7
Lotus Evora – 0
Lotus Exige – 10
Lamborghini Urus – 24
Note: This groups sales of the GranCabrio and GranTurismo models and excludes sales of the Ghibli, Levante and Quattroporte.
Note: This groups sales of all McLaren models.
Morgan Classics – 3
Nissan GT-R – 11
Peugeot Boxer – 2
Porsche Panamera – 10
Renault Clio – 21
SsangYong Tivoli XLV – 23
Volkswagen Arteon – 24
Note: Given an updated Arteon is on the cards for later this year, it's possible the smaller sales of the current model could be a result of limited stock.