Starting from mid-2020s’, small SUVs have been the most sold car class worldwide. The growth of this market is expected to continue in the future, due to the popularity of crossover vehicles.

This Market segment includes light trucks, used as family vehicles of an average footprint around 4.25m² (44ft²) and an average mass around 1610kg (3610lbs).

• European Car Segment: J (Sport Utility Cars – excluding Large SUVs)
• US Car Segment: Small Sport Utility Vehicles
• Chinese Car Segment: Sport Utility Vehicles
• Also known as: Mini SUVs, Compact SUVs, Mini 4x4

Background:
Early SUVs originated form commercial repurposing of the military vehicles used around the Second World War, although those initial models were marketed as station wagons for over fifty years, before finally being called sport utility vehicles in the late 1980’s. In the USA, they rose to popularity in the end of the last century with two major factors influencing their increase in sales: firstly, EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) classified them as light trucks, changing how they are regulated in respect to fuel efficiency, and, secondly, American manufacturers, influenced by competitive prices of imported, smaller models, focused on a more profitable production of larger cars, driving prices of SUVs further down. After the financial crisis in the late 2000’s, sales of the Small SUVs recovered quickly and continued to rise, influencing many companies to redesign their models to suit this new market trend and making crossover SUVs the fasted growing trend today.

Example Models: Daihatsu Terios, Kia Sorento, Kia Sportage, Land Rover Freelander, Mitsubishi Outlander, Peugeot 4007, Suzuki Grand Vitara.