The Geneva auto show revealed several new cars on Tuesday

The Geneva auto show revealed several new cars on Tuesday with a prime position for small crossovers and Sports Utility Vehicles. The trend for small city cars turned mud lovers seems to be a profitable one, when looking at what carmakers in Europe offer in their range. However, customers are increasingly opting for larger cars which tend to use more fuel, demonstrating a widening disparity between customer tastes and regulatory demands to cut down emissions. For the first time, European sales of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) overtook those of conventional cars last year, outselling the traditional subcompact and compact vehicle segments. New smaller SUVs such as Audi's Q2 and the Seat Ateca aim to capitalize on this trend. In Geneva, BMW presented its latest X4 SUV model while Italy's Fiat presented the Tipo, a five door sedan. European demand and profits are up in the car industry and car makers are still trying to find ways to firm up the trend.