Sunday, January 26, 2014

Europe December 2013

The Nissan Leaf was this year Europe's favorite frog EV

Deceiving Edition

Another month, another sales record, with 14.057 units sold, making this the fifth straight month of growth for the European EV market, but these are deceiving numbers, because they are highly influenced by the last freak months in the Netherlands. If we discard those sales, we see more usual numbers (4.748 sales), but still 85% above last December, so yes, europeans are more into plug-ins, but unlike the Dutch, they are not feverishly rushing into dealerships to buy EV's...Anyway, the 67.000 plug-ins sold in 2013 represents a 51% rise over last year, positive numbers indeed.

Looking at the models YTD ranking, December made plenty of changes to it, thanks to new models and the inflated dutch market, the most important change was the Outlander PHEV climbing three spots to #3, thanks to a record-setting sales month (5.003 units!), just behind the Renault Zoe (#2) but still some distance away from the 2013 Best Selling EV in Europe, the Nissan Leaf, which more than doubled sales from one year to the other, selling 10.885 units in 2013. What a price drop can do to improve sales...

But changes in this dynamic market didn't stopped there, the Model S rose to #7, the Opel Ampera benefited from the dutch fever to climb two positions into #8 (But last year it was #2...), the VW e-Up! jumped six positions to #11 (VW, if doesn't get greedy, might have a winner here), beating the BMW i3 (Up one position to #12) in their private duel.

On the flip side, December was horrible for the Renault Twizy, selling just 149 units (Worst selling month ever) and losing three positions to end the year in #10, with 2.990 units. And to think that just last year it was #1 with 9.013 units sold...And the Ampera was #2 with 6.631 sales! How things have changed...

Looking at the brands ranking, Renault is still #1, with 27% Share (Last year it was 37%), followed by Nissan (16%) and Mitsubishi (14%).

Guessing for the '14 trends, discarding possible freak events, we will see sales reach some 60-70.000 units, with Mitsubishi headlining VW, Tesla and Volvo as the new contenders for the best selling title, and Renault and Nissan trying to stay ahead of all that competition. One thing is for certain, if the last few months were entertaining in the Europe ranking, 2014 promises to be even more interesting to follow.

PlEuropeDec.2013%'12Pl
1Nissan Leaf89810.885164
2Renault Zoe7208.8581321
3Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV5.0038.44013N/A
4Volvo V60 Plug-In2.0047.4371122
5Renault Kangoo ZE4595.84593
6Toyota Prius Plug-In5054.31465
7Tesla Model S1.2633.9066N/A
8Opel Ampera7543.15752
9Smart Fortwo ED4663.017512
10Renault Twizy1492.99041
11Volkswagen e-Up!8421.4652N/A
12BMW i34911.2822N/A
13Chevrolet Volt23912111
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Mitsubishi I-Miev
Citröen C-Zero
Bolloré Blue Car
Peugeot iOn
Goupil G3
Renault Fluence ZE
Mia Electric
43
76
43
20
30
20
5
895
728
654
541
516
357
255
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
8
6
9
7
    14
10
13

TOTAL14.05767.026



6 comments:

  1. is uk included? will you post uk full year data?

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  2. UK is partially included, the only accurate data i have regards Nissan and Renault, the rest are estimates, i will post the UK ranking as soon as i have more accurate data.

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    Replies
    1. What is the reason for estimating that the sales will decrease in 2014? My personal estimates is that sales will be closer to 120 000 for Europe in 2014. And I'm considering that to be a conservative estimate.

      Delete
  3. I'm still baffled to why the VW e-Up! had such a great run. Despite like the Prius, t had good brand recognition, it just doesn't make sense to me. It's doing very well in Norway and almost giving the LEAF a hard time, but why? Compared to the i-MiEV/C-Zero/iOn, let alone the LEAF or i3, what does the little e-Up! have over its competitors to do so well last year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The e-UP is from one of the worlds best manufacturers and it's one of the cheapest EV's on the market, way below the LEAF in price. It's fun and cool. Better brand and cheaper price, that's a good equation for success.

      The iMiev/C-Zero/iOn sucks. Short range, boring and no one in their right mind would buy a Citroen or Peugeot.

      The prius hardly counts as a plug-in since the battery is empty when you reach the neighbours driveway.

      Delete
  4. offib: I kinda get it, the e-Up! is a simple, good looking car that doesn't shout "I'm Electric!" and for many people that's important, if plug-ins want to become mainstream, they will need cars like the e-Up! to suit the "mainstream" people.

    No Way: Unless there's another freak event like the one that happened in the Netherlands, sales should have a moderate growth in the Euro markets, counterbalancing the sales dive that the dutch market will have.

    ReplyDelete