Markets Roundup December 2013 (Special Edition)

Ford C-Max Energi: Miss

I. A Year Ago - Hits and Misses

In the end of last January, i have made some sales predictions regarding 2013, let's see how they worked out:

USA

* 15.000 sales for the C-Max Energi - Not even half (7.154), miss;

* 6.000 sales for the Fusion Energi - 6.090 units sold, right on target;

* 12.000 sales for Tesla - 17.650 sales, Tesla consistently outpaced predictions, including their owns;

* 90-110.000 sales for the US EV market - 96.034 units, comfortably within the prediction boundaries.

Japan

* 6.000 units for the Outlander PHEV - Some 10.000 sold this year, with production problems. Not  even Mitsu was this expecting such a sales success;

* 29.000 sales for the Japanese EV Market - Around 30.000 units, hit;

France

* 2.000-4.000 sales for the Renault Zoe - 5.511 sales. Looking back, i was surprisingly skeptical of the Zoe, i mean, the french supermini wasn't a sales success, but it also wasn't as bad as i predicted; 

*14-16.000 sales for the French EV Market - 14.905 sales, right in the middle of the prediction boundaries.

Germany

* 10.000 sales for the German EV Market - 6.714 sales, well behind expectations. Miss.

Netherlands

* 2.200 sales for the Prius Plug-In - 2.364 units, saved by the last quarter sales. Hit;

* 3.500 sales for the Opel Ampera - With 2.208 units sold, even the sales from the last quarter weren't enough to reach near the prediction. Big miss; 

* 9.000 units sold in the Dutch EV market - 23.170 sales, 9.311 of them in December. Who would of thought?

Norway

7.000-8.500 sales in Norway - 8.669 sales, slightly above the best expectations. At the time i was speaking of 6% EV Share like something amazing, as it turns out, the EV Share in Norway is now at 6,10%...

Global EV Sales

200.000 units - Still with data coming in, the number already exceeds 208.000, so 2013 was a good year for plug-ins.


II. Engines of Growth

* By EV Share 

Two of them are easy to discover, after all, plug-in performance were profusely documented in Norway (6,10% in '13 vs 3,12 in '12) and the Netherlands (5,55% in '13 vs 1,10% in '12). But the third market is something of a surprise, with the EV Share in Iceland jumping from 0,21% in 2012 to 0,94% in '13! With all the hydro-thermal energy they have and the small distances associated to an island, EV sales in Iceland should continue to grow exponentially and maybe become something like a Second Norway...

* By Volume

EV Share is important, but even more fundamental is the volume increase, and in this case we had the USA as the main contributor, with more 41.084 units sold regarding 2012, the Netherlands, with more 17.587 sales, and...China, even with a miserable 0,08% EV Share, what matters here is volume and 0,08% of 22 million cars is still a lot of cars, and plug-ins sold more 4.851 regarding last year.


III. 2013 vs 2012

Let's compare #1's of this year with the ones of 2012:

Volt - USA (In '12 - Volt); Canada (Volt)

Leaf - Norway (In '12 - Leaf); UK (Leaf); Spain (Twizy); Denmark (Fluence ZE); Australia (I-Miev); Estonia (I-Miev); Iceland (I-Miev)

Outlander PHEV - Japan (In '12 - Prius Plug-In); Netherlands (Opel Ampera);

Zoe - France (In '12 - Kangoo ZE); Switzerland (Twizy); Austria (Twizy)

V60 Plug-In - Belgium (In '12 - Twizy); Sweden (Prius Plug-In); Finland (Prius Plug-In)

Twizy - Italy (In '12 - Twizy); Portugal (Twizy)

Fortwo ED - Germany (In '12 - Twizy)

Fluence ZE - Hong Kong (In '12 - Leaf)

QQ3 EV - China (In '12 - QQ3 EV)

Examining this, we can see North America as a Volt stronghold, the Leaf stealing trophies from the I-Miev, the Outlander and V60 doing the same at the Prius, the Zoe cannibalizing #1's in Central Europe and the Twizy resisting extinction in the south of the continent.


IV. Other Markets

For some reason (Low volumes, rare data, etc) some markets have been left-out, here is a chance to know some of them:

Israel: Renault Fluence ZE - 436 units; Nissan Leaf (24).

Czech Republic: Nissan Leaf - 16 units; Peugeot iOn (8); Citröen C-Zero (6); BMW i3 (3); Opel Ampera (2); Fisker Karma (1); Porsche Panamera Plug-In (1).

Poland: Nissan Leaf - 15 units; Opel Ampera (5); Tesla Model S (4); BMW i3 (4); Renault Zoe (2); Renault Twizy (2); Smart Fortwo ED (1).

Romania: Renault Fluence ZE - 28 units; Citröen C-Zero (2); Nissan Leaf (1); Toyota Prius Plug-In (1); Tesla Model S (1).

Bulgaria: Renault Twizy - 14 units.

Russia: Mitsubishi I-Miev - 70 units.

Morocco: Renault Twizy - 7 units.

Mexico: Nissan Leaf - 73 units.


V. Predictions for the G7

USA - 110-130.000 units/year, Leaf #1;

Japan - 36-39.000 units/year, Outlander #1;

France - 15-18.000 units/year, Zoe #1;

Netherlands - 15-19.000 units/year, Outlander #1;

Germany - 10.000 units/year, German Car #1;

China - 23.000-28.000 units/year, Qin #1.