| Rear of a black Renault Zoe |
This month the french hatchback started to arrive in significant numbers to countries other than France and that resulted in three #1's for Renault, in May the Zoe topped the EV charts for the first time in Spain, Italy and Austria, adding that to the top spot it already had in France and brilliants #2 in Germany and #3 (And best selling BEV) in the Netherlands, Renault's supermini recovered the top spot (both monthly and YTD) in Europe, relegating the Nissan Leaf to second place. In June the UK-made Leaf's will start being delivered, so it's to be expected that the japanese hatch bounces back then.
Trends in the G7 (Great Seven)
The US market represented 71% of all plug-in sales in May, some 20% above the usual share, because the japanese market sank this month, with just 924 units, which represented just 21% of sales in February, the causes for this terrible performance was not only Mitsubishi's battery problems, but also the Nissan Leaf selling below expectations (Just 708 units).
Despite this, the japanese EV share is still above last year's (0,84% vs 0,77%), just like in six of the seven major markets, with a welcome recovery of the dutch market, now slightly above '12 share (1,104% vs 1,103%). Even Germany, the only country with an lower EV share in '13, is slowly recovering and it's now standing at 0,14%.
| Ruining our month theme, here are the e6 taxis involved in the Hong Kong deal |
Italy (165 units), Austria (53 units) and Hong Kong (55 units) registered the best selling months of the year, with the asian market scoring also an all-time record, thanks to a BYD Taxi fleet deal, and already breaking the sales record of 2012 (89 units), ending May with a total of 99 EV's sold in 2013.
Speaking of record breaking, the other country to beat this year the sales record is tiny Iceland, that already sold 21 plug-in cars this year, beating last year's record of 18 units, with the Toyota Prius Plug-In also beating the 2012 record for best selling model (Mitsu I-Miev - 7 units) by 2 units, establishing for now the new record in 9 units sold. Small numbers, so plenty of space for improvement here.
| Chevrolet Spark EV painted in black: Will the GM model be more than a compliance car? |
Will the Chevrolet Spark EV beat all compliance cars in its sales debut?
Can the Nissan Leaf recover the lead in the Euro market?
Will the Zoe reach #1 in Germany?
Can Volvo recover the top spot in its home market?
Answers:
ReplyDelete1 - No. It was more like "beaten by all compliance cars". Let's see how the Chevy Spark EV behaves in July;
2 - No, not by a long shot. The Zoe stepped up its game (1.387 units sold) and left the Leaf eat its dust;
3 - Yes, but only in the monthly chart. YTD it's still some 200 units behind the Fortwo ED;
4 - No. Renault was the best selling brand in June on the swedish EV market, thanks to consistent Kangoo ZE sales (31 units) and a surprising surge in Twizy sales (23 units), relegating Volvo for #2, although YTD Volvo is still comfortably in number one with 44% share.