World Top 10 August 2015

SAIC Roewe 550 PHEV: Are we witnessing it following Qin's steps for success?

Models -  BYD Qin #1! (Finally!)

Almost 38.000 plug-ins were sold last month, which represents a significant 40% increase regarding the same month last year.

August finally crowned the BYD Qin with the #1 position, ironically, in the first month the chinese sedan has a sales decrease (3.534 units vs 4.030 last month).

The top two, Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S had average performances (3.269 units and 2.805, respectively) but the Mitsu Outlander PHEV had a surprisingly slow sales month (Only 2.328 units), losing the #3 for the BYD Qin. This may indicate that September will see a Tesla-like surge in sales for the japanese SUV. If it does, it will be another piece in the puzzle of what i suspect will be a record-breaking month of September, will we see it cross the 45k mark? Fingers crossed! 

Looking at the rest of the YTD ranking, the only notable change is the Golf GTE dropping one position to #9, changing positions with the veteran Volt, while the e-Golf is now only 7 units behind the #6 Renault Zoe, which registered its worst performance of the year, with only 609 registrations. That's what happens when your main market goes on holidays... 

Outside the Top 10, two models had noteworthy performances, the SAIC Roewe 550 PHEV sedan sold a record 1.628 units, placing it in a honorable Sixth on the August ranking, while the just arrived BYD Tang registered 1.432 units last month alone, earning its first Top 10 appearance (#7, to be precise), in the future we will surely hear a lot about this SUV, and if this year the YTD Top 10 place seems unlikely, next year it will be a given.

Taking a short look at segmentation, in the city cars, the Zotye E20 is ahead (5.624 units), in the segment above the BMW i3 must have secured this month its second consecutive B-Segment/Subcompact car trophy, beating again the Renault Zoe, C-segment / Compact class is for the Leaf, while the in class above, this year it will go again for the Ford Fusion Energi (6.196 units), a car that could do wonders on other side of the Pond...Tesla is eons away from the competition in the following class, next is the rarefied field of F-Segment/Luxury full-size cars the veteran Panamera Plug-In still holds the lead against the Merc S500/550e (856 units vs 523), while on Sports cars, SUV's and MPV's, it's business as usual, with the BMW i8, Outlander PHEV and C-Max Energi leading the way.   

Pl	WORLD	Aug.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	3.269	31.704	11	1
2	Tesla Model S	2.805	27.645	10	3
3	BYD Qin	3.534	24.041	8	7
4 5 6	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV BMW i3 Renault Zoe	2.328 2.137 609	23.889 14.597 10.117	8 5 4	2 6 9
7	Volkswagen e-Golf	1.251	10.110	4	21
8	Chevrolet Volt (1)	1.597	9.501	3	4
9	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.156	9.027	3	33
10	BAIC E-Series EV	1.280	8.244	3	16
	TOTAL	37.743	285.842

Manufacturers -  BYD going after Nissan

After four consecutive months winning the Best Selling Manufacturer title, this time with a new personal record (5.402 units), BYD is closing in fast to the leader Nissan, with only 3.291 units separating them, the leadership might still change until December 31st. 

Mitsubishi and Tesla are running a close race for #3, for the moment the California-based automaker holds a 539 units advantage over the japanese, but  anything can happen next month.

Chevrolet is preparing the assault at the #9 position in September, time where the Volt II will start rolling around the streets of the World North America in silence.

Pl	WORLD	Aug.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan	3.435	34.285	12	1
2	BYD	5.402	30.994	11	7
3	Tesla	2.805	27.645	10	3
4	Mitsubishi	2.760	27.106	9	2
5 6 7	Volkswagen BMW Renault	2.650 2.567 1.121	21.325 18.294 15.140	7 6 5	11 9 8
8	Ford	1.960	13.540	5	5
9	Zotye	1.552	11.701	4	13
10	Chevrolet	1.737	11.555	4	6

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