World Top 10 August 2013 (Updated)

For the first time this year, the Volt family tickled the Nissan Leaf leadership

Models - Record Sales for the Chevrolet Volt 

Profiting from record sales in the US and in Europe, the Chevrolet Volt reached a new personal best, with 4.055 units sold in August, enough to get close for the first time this year  to the usual leader, the Nissan Leaf (4.352 units), which, with four month to go, already beaten it's personal record for YTD sales (26.973 units, established last year), being the first to do so this year.

The Prius Plug-In was third in August, performing the best sales month of the year, with 2.228 units, enough to recover another chunk of lost ground to the Tesla Model S, if the japanese car continues to press on with sales (doubt it), it might even remove the american sedan from #3 in the YTD ranking.

In the remaining ranking, the C-Max Energi profited from a year best performance (651 units) to climb to a surprising #7, surpassing both the Mitsubishi I-Miev (Another horrible month, as expected) and the Renault Kangoo ZE (A deeply unexpected and horrible month). 

And the Mitsu (And the Kangoo, by the way) still has got to watch its back, because the Ford Fusion Energi is coming up strong, with a personal best in August (615 sales), now that it's got the competition for #10 behind, the midsize Ford is now looking to climb even further in the ranking.

BEV's saw their share expansion end, with PHEV's profiting from good months from their representatives to recover three points share, now at 61% BEV's vs 39% PHEV's.

Pl	WORLD	August	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	4.355	28.555	25	3
2	Chevrolet Volt (1)	4.055	17.882	16	1
3	Tesla Model S	1.590	12.749	11	7
4	Toyota Prius Plug-In	2.228	12.077	11	2
5	Renault Zoe	449	5.911	5	28
6	Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In	776	5.083	4	N/A
7	Ford C-Max Energi	651	3.654	3	9
8	Renault Kangoo ZE	171	3.372	3	6
9	Mitsubishi I-Miev (2)	175	3.371	3	5
10	Ford Fusion Energi	615	2.647	2	N/A
	TOTAL	17.964	114.332

Manufacturers - Toyota a Surprise Third

In the Manufacturers ranking, the first two continue stable, with Nissan at the top and Chevrolet second, improving one percent to 16% share.

The real news is the third place of Toyota, climbing two positions, while Tesla keeps its fourth place, because it lost one position to Toyota but also won another at the expense of Renault, which was the loser in all these position changes, dropping two positions and ending the month in fifth. A blip for the french brand or a longer-term trend? 

Behind the seven major players, figures become a bit sketchy as one doesn't know for sure how the chinese brands are behaving, but taking in account confirmed numbers, Chery holds to #8, followed by a bullish Smart in #9 and by BYD in #10.

A curious fact is that in 8 months, 5 out of the 10 best-selling brands have already beaten their previous YTD sales records, owing three of them to new models (Outlander PHEV for Mitsubishi, Model S for Tesla and the Energi family for Ford), while Nissan profited from the Leaf price drop and Smart from the series production of its 3rd gen Fortwo ED. 

What this teaches us is that the market is starting to fragment, with new carmakers coming in (Like VW and the rest of the german squad), and existing ones responding by improving their current offer, while adding new models to their current lineup, like like Chevrolet with the Spark EV, or Ford with the Energi family, in that way expanding their sales potential for the brand.  

Pl	WORLD	August	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Nissan	4.352	28.555	25	3
2	Chevrolet	4.157	18.114	16	1
3	Toyota	2.460	12.860	11	2
4	Tesla	1.590	12.760	11	9
5	Renault	855	12.267	11	4
6	Mitsubishi	1.031	10.091	8	5
7	Ford	1.454	7.598	7	7
8	Chery (e)	200	2.200	2	6
9	Smart	310	1.985	2	15
10	BYD	273	1.858	2	8

(1) - Includes Holden Volt, Opel and Vauxhall Ampera;
(2) - Includes Citröen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn.
(e) - Estimate


Questions for September

Will the Prius Plug-In pass the Tesla Model S? 

Which model will be #8?

Will Toyota confirm the #3?

Can Renault recover?

Can Smart attack Chery's eighth spot?