Friday, February 13, 2015

Norway January 2015



e-Golf Superstar Edition

Just like in a Fringe episode, if in the PHEV capital of the world, Amsterdam, there was a surge in sales this January, in Oslo, BEV capital, there was also an unexpected rise in sales, with a plug-in VW Golf rising to #1 in both markets. But looking with closer attention, there are differences, while in the Dutch market the sporty Golf GTE steals the show, in Norway it's the more moderate e-Golf calling the shots, with an amazing 879 units, the best result for a single model since the historic performance (1.493 units) of the Model S last March, this result is due to VW (finally) realising that it would be nice to sell the e-Golf with a heatpump in a country like Norway, now equipped with that important element, the e-Golf sales have surpassed those of the regular ICE Golf, reaching for the first time the #1 in the General Ranking and recovering the EV leadership for the first time since August '14.

Speaking of the general performance, there were 2.241 EV's sold, the best result since March, with the EV Share shooting for 21,30% (And 18% Share for BEV's), a fantastic improvement over the previous year (14%), with electric cars already dominating the City-car segment, with the Top 3 (e-Up!, I-Miev and Peugeot iOn) belonging to the EV Cause.
  
Looking elsewhere, the Leaf had a disappointing month, selling only 309 units, its worst performance since July '13, reaching only a #7 in the General Ranking, Tesla is suffering from deliveries constraints (Only 71 units) but still enough to outsell (By one unit...) the BMW 5-Series, its closest rival in the large sedan (E-Class) segment. 

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV sold a surprising 270 units, its personal best in Norway, granting it the Third Spot on the plug-in ranking and the Second Spot on the SUV's chart, behind the Toyota RAV4. Kia repeated a Top 5 appearance, with 105 Soul's, outrunning (again) the BMW i3 in the compact crossover-thingy race.

Final mention for the good reception of the Audi A3 e-Tron, with 54 units, already the Second Best-Selling PHEV in this market.

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen owns almost half of the market (47%, to be more precise), outselling Mitsubishi (16%) and Nissan (14%). With the arrival of the improved e-Golf this January and the Golf GTE version coming in February (And don't forget the Passat GTE coming later in the year), the german carmaker looks more and more the ruler of this market. Just to make things perfect, they could launch a e-Tiguan or a GTE version of its CUV...

PlNorwayJan.YTD '15%'14Pl
1Volkswagen e-Golf879879395
2Nissan Leaf309309141
3Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV270270126
4Volkswagen e-Up! e)18018083
5Kia Soul EV10510557
6BMW i310110184
7Mitsubishi I-Miev989849
8Renault Zoe797948
9Tesla Model S717132
10
11
Peugeot iOn
Audi A3 e-Tron
60
54
60
54
3
2
11
21
12Toyota Prius Plug-In33017
13Opel Ampera22021

TOTAL2.2412.241100


e) Estimate



Source: Best Selling Cars Blog, gronnbil.no;

10 comments:

  1. Does the above 100 iMiev mean Mitsubishi solved their battery constraint? I hope so. The US also shall get a new batch of iMievs this year. It would be cool to see the cheap EVs (iMiev & Smart) gain some share. :-)

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  2. So seams that this month Europe will sell more plug-in cars than USA.
    Is it the first time that happen?

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  3. November and December 2013 also. Nov 2013 : Usa 9000 Europe 10500 Dec 2013 : Usa 10000 Europe 14000.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Claudine!

      Feels weird to see that VW group has became the king of plug-in's in Europe.

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    2. VW is on spectacular growing trend this year, i think we will hear a lot more of them here...

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  4. Jose you speak of new Golf versions. What is different for the improved eGolf and Golf GTE? Or do you mean the added heatpump?

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    Replies
    1. The e-Golf is a pure electric (Leaf-like), while the Golf GTE is a plug-in hybrid (Ford Energi-type)

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    2. But what is improved? You wrote: "With the improved e-Golf and the GTE version coming this February"

      Thanks.

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    3. The improvement refers to the heat pump, i will make the text clearer on that, so there's no confusion for readers.

      Delete
  5. Yes, i know. I'm just curios about the "improved versions that arrive in February" that you mentioned in your article.

    ReplyDelete