Austria Full Year 2012 (Updated)

2011 Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-Cell

The austrian EV market has nearly doubled their sales to 1.024 units, a fairly respectable number given the overall dimension of the local car market, with the Renault Twizy winning the pole position with 271 units, ahead of last years winner, the Citröen C-Zero, which sold 198 cars in 2012, 40 less than in the previous year.

Unlike other markets, where a single model represents 50% or more of the market, here it's more fragmented, with the #1 having just 26% share. But despite that, Renault as a brand achieves a comfortable 57% share, thanks to the good performance of their models (Twizy #1, Kangoo #3 and Fluence #4). With this successful background, things look good for the introduction of the Renault Zoe in Austria.

Now two curious aspects of the austrian market:

First, the 13 units sold of the Mercedes A-Class E-Cell, along with the dozens sold in the previous year indicates Austria as potential hit market for the electrification effort to be made by Mercedes this year;

Second, the best selling Plug-In Hybrid car was...The Fisker Karma. With a mammoth 12 units sold. Even if there's not available data about the Prius Plug-In sales, it's still amazing that the Karma outsold the Ampera/Volt sales counted together. And it also demonstrates that Plug-In Hybrids still have a long way to go in Austria...

Austria	Dec	2012	%
Renault Twizy	12	271	21
Citröen C-Zero	1	198	15
Renault Kangoo ZE	1	185	15
Opel Ampera Renault Fluence ZE	12	165 126	14 11
Mitsubishi I-Miev	20	69	7
Nissan Leaf	5	64	6
Peugeot iOn		46	4
Chevrolet Volt Mercedes A E-Cell		15 13	1 1
Fisker Karma		12	1
Smart Fortwo ED		12	1
Opel Ampera	5	10	1
Tesla Roadster		8	1
Think City	3	8	1
Chevrolet Volt	1	1	0
Volvo C30 Electric		1	0
Toyota Prius Plug-In (a)		0	0
TOTAL	60	1.193	100

(a) - Data not available


Source: automotive.co.at