Europe May 2015

A Rising Star?

Golf GTE Edition

With almost 13.000 units, the European EV market had its third best month ever, with  a 50% improvement YoY, with the 62k sold this year, this is the economic block with the largest number of EV sales this year, ahead of the Americas (46k) and Asia-Pacific (55k).

Looking at the monthly models ranking, the Volkswagen Golf GTE made a return to form, selling 1.322 units (A Personal Best), jumping to #2 in May and surpassing the BMW i3 in the YTD chart.

As for the rest of the monthly ranking, the Nissan Leaf and VW e-Golf sales were below expectations, with the first selling 965 units (It was in 2013 the last time the japanese car sold below the 1.000 units in two months in a row), while the second was only #8, registering just 765 units, its worst performance this year. Is the GTE cannibalizing sales here?

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2.443
2	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.322
3	Renault Zoe	1.226
4	Tesla Model S	1.137
5	Nissan Leaf	965

Looking at the YTD ranking, besides the aforementioned rise of the Golf GTE to #6, the Renault Kangoo ZE also had a slight uptick in sales (329 units, best result of the year), climbing one position to #12 and recovering ground to the new LCV king the #11 e-NV200/Evalia twins. Now with only 49 units separating them, it looks that the french van isn't willing to let go of its Commercial Kingdom crown without a fight.

In the second half of the ranking, the Smart Fortwo ED continues to slide, down another position to #15 and urgently needing a replacement to recover a place in the Top 10, the same can be said of the Prius Plug-In, down nine positions regarding last year and 15(!) if we look at 2013....

Looking at the brands ranking, there weren't significant changes: Volkswagen (18% Share) recovered ground to Mitsubishi (19%), thanks to the Golf GTE sales uptick, while Nissan and Renault are tied in a distant Third (13%).

A final mention to Mercedes, after a slow start, the german brand is starting to pick up steam, with good performances across the lineup, especially the C350e Plug-In Hybrid, already selling 294 units in May, achieving the #11 in May and #21 YTD, making it the Best Rookie this year and placing it as a future candidate to a Top 10 place and to the D-Segment/Midsize crown. Watch out Volvo V60, you now have serious competition...

Pl	Europe	May	2015	%	'14Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2.443	11.578	19	1
2	Nissan Leaf	965	6.779	11	2
3	Renault Zoe	1.226	5.992	10	3
4	Tesla Model S	1.137	5.840	9	4
5	Volkswagen e-Golf	765	4.996	8	9
6	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.322	4.988	8	22
7	BMW i3	871	4.017	6	5
8	Audi A3 e-Tron	858	3.624	6	19
9	Volvo V60 Plug-In	404	2.055	3	7
10	Volkswagen e-Up!	216	1.286	2	6
11	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	208	1.245	2	12
12	Renault Kangoo ZE	329	1.196	2	8
13	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	255	1.158	2	28
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25	BMW i8 Smart Fortwo ED Renault Twizy Mercedes B-Class ED Kia Soul EV Peugeot iOn Bolloré Blue Car Mercedes C350e Plug-In Mitsubishi I-Miev Citröen C-Zero Porsche Panamera Plug-In Toyota Prius Plug-In	161 143 208 186 107 63 46 294 82 65 62 13	957 931 899 683 677 422  387 368 351 337 282 281	2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0	15 10 11 29 23 21 13 N/A 17 20 18 14
	TOTAL	12.704	62.467