USA September 2015

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?...

(Still) Counting the Days Edition

Almost 10.000 plug-ins were sold in the US last month, down 6% YoY, making this the third month in a row with sales below 10k, something that didn't happened since April 2014.

The reason for this is that EV's are on a turning point in the US, which was expected to change this month with the arrival of the 2nd Gen Chevy Volt and the new Tesla Model X, but the first  was delayed, while regarding the second, Tesla only delivered six units...Better luck in October?

Anyway, looking at the current models, the Model S had the expected last quarter surge, selling 2.300 units, while the BMW i3 surged to 1.710 units, improving its personal best, securing a distant margin from the #5 Fusion Energi.

As for positions changes, there was only one: The Porsche Cayenne Plug-In climbed one position to #15, relegating the Cadillac ELR to #16.

As for the manufacturers ranking, the leader Tesla (15.517 units) distanced itself from the Second Placed Ford (14.528), and the #3 Nissan (13.630)rounding up the podium.

Pl	USA	Sep.	YTD	%
1	Tesla Model S e)	2.300	15.511	19
2	Nissan Leaf	1.247	13.630	17
3	Chevrolet Volt	949	9.264	11
4	BMW i3	1.710	7.893	10
5	Ford Fusion Energi	808	6.899	8
6	Ford C-Max Energi	719	6.362	8
7	Fiat 500e	635	5.114	6
8	Toyota Prius Plug-In	216	4.034	5
9	Volkswagen e-Golf	343	2.555	3
10	Chevrolet Spark EV	157	2.134	3
11	Mercedes B-Class ED	147	1.687	2
12 13 14 15	BMW i8 Ford Focus Electric Smart Fortwo ED Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	182 176 94 70	1.342 1.122 955 772	2 2 1 1
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26	Cadillac ELR Kia Soul EV P. Panamera Plug-In Porsche 918 Mitsubishi I-Miev Honda Accord Plug-In Bolloré Blue Car  Mercedes S550 PHEV Toyota RAV4 EV Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV Honda Fit EV	36 105 41 4 3 17	740 727 330 201 93 62 50 37 16 4 1	1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0 0
	TOTAL	9.934	81.686	100

e) Estimate

Source: insideevs.com; greencarreports.com

Tesla vs The Others

As Elon Musk pointed out, the real competition of Tesla aren't other EV's, but the ICE best selling models, so let's look how the Model S stands in its own domestic market (1):

Pl	Model	Sept.
1	Mercedes E-Class	4.173
2	BMW 5-Series	4.059
3	Tesla Model S	2.300
4	Audi A6	1.753
5	Lexus GS	1.595

  
As the ranking clearly shows, even in last-quarter-surge like months, the Model S is still far from the top two models, but it is already playing head-to-head with the rest, be it the Audi A6, Lexus GS or the #6 Cadillac CTS, as YTD numbers show, with the german model ahead with 17k units, the japanese-born but honorary german having 16k and the american at 14k, yes, the Model S outsells the Caddie CTS, something that should make GM's luxury brand CEO reflect...


(1) - Unlike in markets across the pond, the full-size car market in the US is much more diversified, with Chevy Impalas, Malibus, Chrysler 300, Dodge Chargers, etc, all theoretical adversaries to the Model S, but Tesla's direct competition isn't there, so the Model S is only compared with cars with similar price and concept.