World Top 10 July 2015



Models -  BYD Qin Outlander PHEV #1!!!

Some 37.000 plug-ins were sold last month, which represents a 44% increase regarding the same month last year, which shows that the global EV Market continues in good health.

The top position in July had a surprising development in the last days, with the Mitsu Outlander PHEV performing an extraordinary result in the last minute (Japanese EV Market)  allowing it to remove the BYD Qin from #1 and return to the Best Seller seat for the first time since December '13.

Despite this last minute defeat, it was still a good month for the BYD Qin, scoring a runner-up place for the first time, with the Tesla Model S completing the podium, the Californian star stayed above the 3.000 units for the first time in the first month of the Quarter. Will that mean that Tesla will beat its own sales record (5.644 units) in September?

A mention for the Nissan Leaf, which sold only 3.073 units, its worst result since February 2013 and the first time ever that the japanese hatch is below the podium seats. Is this a side effect of that rumored 30kWh battery?

Looking at the YTD ranking, the Outlander PHEV managed to keep the #3 from the BYD thanks to the aforementioned events, while in the rest of the ranking, the only notable fact is the Golf GTE closing in on the e-Golf sibling, with only 76 units separating them, expect the GTE to climb to #7 in August. This fact begs the question: Why doesn't VW sell the GTE in North America? 

Outside the Top 10, one model is making itself noticed, the Audi A3 e-Tron was #8 in the July ranking, selling a record 1.325 units, the german plug-in is now #11 in the YTD ranking, 776  units behind the #10 BAIC E-Series EV, with the e-Tron arriving to the USA in October, expect it to add an additional 300 units from then on and reach a Top 10 spot before year end.

Pl	WORLD	July	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	3.073	28.143	12	1
2	Tesla Model S	3.115	24.867	10	3
3	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	4.169	21.425	9	2
4 5 6	BYD Qin BMW i3 Renault Zoe e)	4.030 1.807 980	20.507 12.339 9.508	8 5 4	7 6 9
7	Volkswagen e-Golf	1.233	8.437	3	21
8	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.611	8.361	3	33
9	Chevrolet Volt (1)	1.530	7.900	3	4
10	BAIC E-Series EV	1.161	6.964	3	16
	TOTAL	36.529	244.302

Manufacturers -  BYD beats Tesla

After three consecutive months winning the Best Selling Manufacturer title, BYD finally surpassed Tesla in the YTD ranking and now only has the perennial leader Nissan in its way to reach the Manufacturers Title. 


Mitsubishi performed the surprise of the month, selling 4.551 units, with the restyled Outlander PHEV starting to spread across the world in the coming months, expect the japanese carmaker to recover ground on the Top 3 and even recover a podium seat in the near future.

Pl	WORLD	July	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan	3.312	30.417	12	1
2	BYD	5.183	25.592	10	7
3	Tesla	3.115	24.867	10	3
4	Mitsubishi	4.551	24.117	10	2
5 6 7	Volkswagen BMW Renault e)	3.130 2.333 1.330	18.786 15.469 13.586	8 6 6	11 9 8
8	Ford	1.828	11.548	5	5
9	Zotye	886	10.149	4	13
10	Chevrolet	1.592	9.793	4	6

(1) - Includes Holden Volt, Opel and Vauxhall Ampera;

e) Estimate

Japan July 2015

Outlander PHEV Bounces Back

After several months in the red, sales bounced back in July, growing 23% YoY to 3.501 units, making it the best selling month in tem months.

This sudden bump in sales is due to the launch of the restyled Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, which sold 2.383 units, a number that sets a new monthly record for a single model and places it in #30 in the general ranking.

With the Leaf selling half (694 units) of what it did a year ago, the Outlander PHEV is back at the race for #1, it is still 875 units behind Nissan's hatch, but if the current leader doesn't rebound (The rumoured 30kWh...), Mitsu will take its restyled plug-in SUV to the leadership before year end.

Looking at the brands ranking, Nissan (44%) lost share over Mitsubishi (41%), and next month might even see a leadership change.

A final mention to the FCEV Toyota Mirai, 41 units were registered last month, not much, but it's a starting point, let's see how things develop from here.

Pl	Japan	July	2015	%	Pl '14
1	Nissan Leaf	694	6.185	41	1
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2.383	5.310	35	2
3	Toyota Prius Plug-In e)	130	1.110	7	3
4	BMW i3 e)	100	700	5	6
5	Mitsubishi I-Miev	73	414	3	4
6 7 8 9 10 10	Tesla Model S e) Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Mitsubishi Minicab Miev Mit. Minicab Miev Truck BMW i8 e) Honda Accord Plug-In	25 50 37 9 5	389 350 326 114 35 30	3 2 2 1 0 0	7 N/A 5 8 10 9
	TOTAL	3.501	14.963	100

e) Estimate

Source:http://evn.blog.eonet.jp; insideevs.com

Belgium July 2015

Nothing like exploring the countryside in silence...

Vacances / Vakantie / Ferien Edition

235 EV's were sold in Belgium last month, half of what it sold in the previous month, but with YoY sales up 53%, it's more a case of seasonality (You know, Summertime...) than some kind of slowing down of sales.

The top places remain the same, but below the Top 5, things start to shake: The Outlander PHEV climbed one position to #6, switching places with the Nissan Leaf, which registered only 7 units, its worst showing in 14 months!

But there were more changes, the Audi A3 e-Tron broke its personal record by selling 25 units, surpassing at the same time the BMW i8 (7 units, worst result of the year), and reaching the Eighth Place, while the Mercedes B-Class ED is receiving a warm welcome here, selling a record 16 units and jumping three positions to #11, becoming the best selling rookie this year, ahead of its S500 PHEV sibling.

In the manufacturers ranking, everything remains the same, with Porsche leading (23%), followed by Tesla (21%) and BMW, with 16%.

Pl	Belgium	July	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Tesla Model S	38	486	21	1
2	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	45	446	19	14
3 4	BMW i3 * VW Golf GTE	26 12	260 188	11 8	2 23
5	Volvo V60 Plug-In	12	143	6	6
6	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	13	130	6	5
7	Nissan Leaf	7	127	5	4
8	Audi A3 e-Tron	25	115	5	15
9	BMW i8	7	112	5	9
10	Porsche Panamera Plug-In	3	73	3	3
11	Renault Twizy e)	5	38	2	8
11	Mercedes B-Class ED	16	38	2	N/A
13 14 15 15	Mercedes S500 Plug-In VW e-Golf Smart Fortwo ED Renault Zoe	5 3 2 3	37  28 21 21	2 1 1 1	N/A 10 10 7
17 18 19 20 21 22 22 24 24 24	VW e-Up! Kia Soul EV Mercedes C350e Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Porsche 918 Ford Focus Electric Opel Ampera Peugeot iOn Volkswagen XL1 McLaren P1	2 4 4 1 1 2	18 11 9 7 5 3 3 2 2  2	1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	12 18 N/A  18 21 N/A 16 17 N/A 23
	TOTAL	235	2.325	100

Source: febiac.be

* - 7 Bev + 19 Rex

Europe July 2015 (Updated)

Rise...

Rise Of The Empire Edition

Close to 13.000 units were sold last month in the European EV market, and now with the Belgium numbers, there's a 75% improvement YoY, so the plug-in force continues to run strong in the Old Continent.

Looking at the monthly models ranking, the Outlander PHEV returned to the Best Seller seat, selling 1.711 units, followed closely by the VW Golf GTE (1.611 units).

The business-suit Golf GTE Audi A3 e-Tron continues to impress: Thanks to a second consecutive personal best performance (980 units in June, 1.310 now), the Ingolstadt model climbed for the first time to a podium seat and joined the short-listed club of four digit sales models.

Final mention for the good performance of the Tesla Model S, scoring for the first time a thousand-something result in a first month of the quarter (1.106 units, to be precise), rising 130% YoY, a significant result for a model that starts in the high 60.000's of euros.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Mitsu Outlander PHEV	1.711
2	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.611
3	Audi A3 e-Tron	1.310
4	Tesla Model S	1.106
5	Nissan Leaf	1.038

Looking at the YTD ranking, the VAG Group products are rising, the VW Golf GTE is now dangerously close to the #4 Tesla Model S, the Audi A3 e-Tron is up one position to #7, while the VW e-Up! is back at Tenth spot, making four VAG models in the Top 10, not bad, considering that only ten months ago it had just one representative...

On the Losers side, besides the (Soon to be) discontinued models like the Smart Fortwo ED, Opel Ampera and the like, there are two models that deserve a special attention, the Volvo V60 Plug-In sold only 349 units, its worst result of the year, while the BMW i3, on top of losing one position to the Audi A3 e-Tron (It is now #8 versus #4 twelve months ago), was down 11% YoY, which is a bad sign when you are in a fast growing market. Is the little Bimmer starting to show its first wrinkles?

Looking at the brands ranking, Volkswagen is now officially the holder of Europe's EV Manufacturers Throne (18%), followed closely by the now dethroned Mitsubishi (17%).

As for the Third Place, Renault (13%) won just a little more distance from its japanese cousin, Nissan, in Fourth with 12%.

Pl	Europe	July	2015	%	'14Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	1.711	15.580	17	1
2	Nissan Leaf	1.038	9.672	10	2
3	Renault Zoe	1.023	9.459	10	3
4	Tesla Model S	1.106	8.513	9	4
5	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.611	8.361	9	22
6	Volkswagen e-Golf	920	6.606	7	9
7	Audi A3 e-Tron	1.310	6.065	7	19
8	BMW i3	720	5.524	6	5
9	Volvo V60 Plug-In	349	2.818	3	7
10	Volkswagen e-Up!	232	1.866	2	6
11	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	181	1.814	2	12
12	Renault Kangoo ZE e)	200	1.811	2	8
13 14 15 16 17	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Kia Soul EV Mercedes B-Class ED Renault Twizy e) Smart Fortwo ED	250 337 342 150 111	1.726 1.712 1.570 1.288 1.270	2 2 2 1 1	28 23 29 11 10
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30	BMW i8 Mercedes C350e Plug-In Peugeot iOn Bolloré Blue Car Citröen C-Zero Mitsubishi I-Miev Toyota Prius Plug-In Porsche Panamera Plug-In Mercedes S500e Plug-In Ford C-Max Energi Goupil Peugeot Partner EV Opel Ampera	132  376 148 74 65 35 23 31 36 113 40 24 7	1.241 1.142 736 551 493 444 369 363 352 337 250 186 160	1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	15 N/A 21 13 20 17 14 18 31 N/A 24 25 16
	TOTAL	12.808	92.790

Markets Roundup July 2015

 Tesla Model S vs Competition and Model X Outlook

Model S

While the Model S continues flirting with top spots in several EV Markets, Elon Musk (And common sense), indicates that the real competition for Tesla aren't other plug-ins, but regular Premium Carmakers, like the german Three Marys (Audi, BMW and Mercedes), Lexus, Jaguar, Cadillac, etc.

In the US, the Model S might be ahead of the EV League, but it still falls largely behind their top competitors, selling less than half than the leader Mercedes E-Class (27k vs 13k). In Canada, things get better as the "S" is Second, behind the Merc E/CLS-Class.

But in Europe there are markets where Tesla is making a dent on the Three Marys domination, like in Switzerland, where Tesla sold 199 units, counting 837 sales YTD, it is close to the numbers of Audi A6 (1.159 units), BMW 5-Series (1.183 units) and Merc E-Class (1.007), or in Denmark,  the american car is only 12 units behind the leader Audi A6 and will probably reach #1 next month.

Norway is a whole other case, Tesla is so mainstream that the Model S is #2 in the general ranking...

As for Asia, the only market where the Model S makes an impression is in Hong Kong, leading the full-size class.


Model X

While the Model S has problems to reach high volumes and race their class top sellers, the Model X has a more friendly market to tackle, not only the full-size SUV segment is less dependent from conservative-leaning fleet buyers, therefore it's less brand-minded, making it easier to steal sales from other manufacturers.

Tesla sources say that preorders for the "X" is higher than it was for its sedan sibling, so one might expect that Tesla's SUV will have at least the same demand as the "S", if this year deliveries will be in the hundreds per month, next year sales should take off and rise to similar numbers as the Model S

An interesting question for the future will be if both can coexist peacefully or will the Model X "Cayenneize" the Model S and eat into their sales.

 






Trophy Rooms in the G8 
 
Here are the best sellers throughout the years in the Top EV Markets:

Country
	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015 *
USA	Chevrolet Volt	Nissan Leaf	Chevrolet Volt	Chevrolet Volt	Nissan Leaf	Tesla Model S
China	JAC J3 EV	Chery QQ3 EV	Chery QQ3 EV	Chery QQ3 EV	BYD Qin	BYD Qin
Japan	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Nissan Leaf	T. Prius Plug-In	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf
France	Cit. Berlingo EV	Renault Kangoo ZE	Renault Kangoo ZE	Renault Zoe	Renault Zoe	Renault Zoe
Netherlands	Think City	Nissan Leaf	Opel Ampera	M. Outlander PHEV	M. Outlander PHEV	VW Golf GTE
Norway	Think City	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	VW e-Golf
Germany	Smart Fortwo ED	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Renault Twizy	Smart Fortwo ED	BMW i3	VW Golf GTE
UK	Smart Fortwo ED	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	M. Outlander PHEV	M. Outlander PHEV

Looking at early years, the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf divided the headlines, with brief appearances from the Prius Plug-In (2012 in Japan) and Renault Twizy ('12 in Germany). A mention for the strong showing for LCV's in France and the initial lead from Think (Remember them?) in the Netherlands and Norway.

In most recent years, the sales trend goes for plug-in hybrids, this year, for the first time, four out of the eight best-sellers are PHEV's, with the Qin ruling in China, the Outlander PHEV in the UK, and the Golf GTE stealing the show in the Netherlands and Germany, a curious fact regarding this last market is that in six years there were five different leaders, making it probably the most entretaining EV Market in the world.

Trophy Rooms in other Markets 

As for the rest of the markets, there is something for everyone:

 

Country
	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015  *
Canada	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Chevrolet Volt	Chevrolet Volt	Chevrolet Volt	Chevrolet Volt	Tesla Model S
Sweden	Volvo C30 Electric	Mitsubishi I-Miev	T. Prius Plug-In	Volvo V60 Plug-In	M. Outlander PHEV	M. Outlander PHEV
Switzerland	Think City	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Renault Twizy	Renault Zoe	Tesla Model S	Tesla Model S
Italy		Citröen C-Zero	Renault Twizy	Renault Twizy	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf
Belgium	Tesla Roadster	Peugeot iOn	Renault Twizy	Volvo V60 Plug-In	Tesla Model S	Tesla Model S
Spain	Think City	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Renault Twizy	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf
Austria	Think City	Citröen C-Zero	Renault Twizy	Renault Zoe	Renault Zoe	Tesla Model S
Denmark	Peugeot iOn	Peugeot iOn	Renault Fluence ZE	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Tesla Model S
South Korea			Kia Ray EV	Samsung SM3 ZE	Kia Soul EV	Kia Soul EV
Australia	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Nissan Leaf	M. Outlander PHEV	M. Outlander PHEV
Portugal	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Renault Twizy	Renault Twizy	BMW i3	Nissan Leaf
Hong Kong			Nissan Leaf	Ren. Fluence ZE	BMW i3	Tesla Model S
Estonia		Mitsubishi I-Miev	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf
Ireland	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf
Finland	Think City	Citröen C-Zero	T. Prius Plug-In	Volvo V60 Plug-In	M. Outlander PHEV	Nissan Leaf
Czech Republic	Smart Fortwo ED	Smart Fortwo ED	Peugeot iOn	Nissan Leaf	BMW i3	VW e-Golf
Iceland			Mitsubishi I-Miev	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf	Nissan Leaf
Poland		Mitsubishi I-Miev	Peugeot iOn	Nissan Leaf	BMW i3	M. Outlander PHEV
New Zealand	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Nissan Leaf	Mitsubishi I-Miev	M. Outlander PHEV	M. Outlander PHEV
South Africa					Nissan Leaf	BMW i8
Russia		Mitsubishi I-Miev	Mitsubishi I-Miev	Mitsubishi I-Miev	M. Outlander PHEV (?)	Tesla Model S (?)
Slovenia		Citröen C-Zero	Citröen C-Zero		Tesla Model S	Renault Zoe

* - Until July

Looking at early winners, the Mitsubishi I-Miev triplets pioneered the EV market in several markets, while in 2012 the Renault Twizy had its Moment of Glory, leading the way in six different markets.

In 2013 the Twizy vanished from the map, replaced by the Nissan Leaf and later by the Outlander PHEV and Tesla Model S.