EV Distribution - Portugal May 2015

Following a reader suggestion, i made a small study regarding the distribution of EV's in my home country, this is a small sample (70 units) of the 1.300-something EV's registered in Portugal, based on used car websites, so this should only be seen as an indication of how electric vehicles are distributed across the portuguese territory.

For the information to be easier to understand for people not familiar with the local geography, i have divided the country in seven areas: Northwest (Porto, Aveiro, Braga and Viana do Castelo  districts), Northeast (Bragança, Vila Real, Guarda and Viseu), Center (Coimbra, Castelo Branco, Leiria and Santarém), Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Lisbon and Setubal), South (Portalegre, Evora, Beja and Faro), Azores and Madeira.

But let's look at the distribution of the best selling EV's:

Nissan Leaf 

From the snowy mountains of the Northeast to the scorching hot South, the most common EV in Portugal is present across mainland Portugal, being the only EV present in the harsh climate (Cold winters and hot summers) of the Northeast.

Here's how the japanese car is distributed: NW - 4 units; NE - 3; CT - 2; LIS - 4; SO - 2.

Mitsubishi I-Miev triplets (Includes Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero)

It's also spreaded across the mainland, but in this case it is visible the concentration in the major cities, with half of the 10 units concentrated in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with an additional three distributed among the NW Braga-Porto-Aveiro industrial cluster and the remaining two distributed by the Center and South.

Renault Twizy

The french quadricycle is quite popular among the more tourism-friendly areas as a rental car, that's why it's present across the seaside areas and in the Azores and Madeira islands.

Here's the sample distribution: LIS - 3 units; CT - 2; MAD - 2; SO - 1; AZ - 1; NW - 1.

BMW i3

Having just two i-dealerships in Portugal (One in Oporto and the other in Lisbon), it isn't surprising that these hot hatches are concentrated in those areas, with three i3 in Lisbon (And the two existing i8's) and two in the northern capital.

There is also one i3 confirmed in the Azores islands, in Ponta Delgada (Regional capital), probably imported from the mainland, and it should be a blast to drive there, with that territory being fertile on narrow mountain roads, a place where the little german car excels.

Renault Zoe

Another car concentrated in the two larger metropolitan areas, with three in Porto (NW) and two in Lisbon, with the last one living further South, in the tourist-friendly Algarve.

It should be noted that the french carmaker has the largest dealership network in Portugal and the fact that these cars are concentrated in urban areas only reinforces the feeling that most of their dealerships aren't really prepared/willing to sell electric vehicles to the general public.


Others

In the more recent arrivals / smaller diffusion models, there are a couple cases worthy of mention, the five Outlander PHEV are more popular in the southern areas (two in the Center, one in Lisbon and two in the South), while the two V60 Plug-In are concentrated in the Northwest, but the reality is that EV's sold in small numbers tend to concentrate in Lisbon, like is the case of the  Smart Fortwo ED, with three out of four living in the Capital's Metropolitan Area and the remaining unit living up in the Northwest (Braga).

It would be interesting to have data on the Plug-In Porches, but looking at the general picture of other high-end EV's (The two BMW i8  reside in Lisbon and there also two Teslas in Lisbon, while the other is registered the Center of the country), it is possible to extract that the expensive plug-ins are also concentrated around Lisbon.

Together with the data above mentioned, this means that the NW industrial belt (Braga-Porto-Aveiro) is behind the curve regarding Lisbon in EV acceptance (16 EV's in NW vs 27 in LIS).