Euro Car Segment

Vehicle segments for cars in Europe do not have formal characterization or regulations. Although the definition is vague, there is little overlap between segments A-F based on mass and area parameters.

Models segments tend to be based on comparison to well-known brand models. For example, a car such as the Volkswagen Golf might be described as being in the Ford Focus size class, or vice versa. The VW Polo is smaller, so it belongs one segment below the Golf, while the bigger Passat is one segment above.

The segments have been defined in the past by the European Commission: (EU market share in 2011)

These are different to the classifications used by the Europe-wide safety assessment programme Euro NCAP.