World Top 10 October 2015

Old and New

Models - Kandi Panda EV #1!

Thanks mostly to another outstanding performance of the chinese market, more than 51.000 plug-ins were sold last month, which not only represents a 8% increase over the last record (48k, two months ago), but also a significant 80%(!) increase regarding the same month last year, pulling the YTD sales to 385k units, meaning that we are headed for some 500.000 units at the end of the year. Yep, half a million EV's in one year, this year.

And to think sales in 2012 were at around 150.000...

Thanks to a booming Chinese market, for the first time since 2010, we see a chinese model claiming the Monthly Best Selling Model, but the real surprise is that it wasn't a BYD model, but a Kandi...The Panda EV, based on the Geely model with the same name, sold 4.581 units, the best performance ever for a chinese model, enabling it to outrun the usual suspects and win the October Best Seller Trophy, while at the same time allowed it to jump to #11 in the YTD chart, only 155 units short of joining the Top 10.

But there were more chinese models to impress in October: The recently landed BYD Tang was #4 (New pb for the SUV), with 3.212 units, the BAIC E-Series was #6, with 2.344 units (Year best), Zotye Z100 / Cloud EV ended in #7, with a record 2.340 units, and finally the once fearsome BYD Qin was #9, with just 2.209 units. All in all, five out of the Top 10 best sellers in October came from China. And foreign manufacturers are still weighing if they should or not start making plug-ins in there...

In other news...Taking the risk of reproducing myself frequently, the Nissan Leaf desperately needs to start selling the 30kWh, the 2.949 registrations made last month were its worst result in almost three years, losing 9% share regarding last year.  

Speaking of veteran models, the Chevy Volt II finally started to appear on dealerships and helped the Volt family(1) to register its best performance in 14 months, by selling 2.264 units.

The only notable position changes were the VW e-Golf dropping two positions to #9, to the benefit of the aforementioned Volt, up one position to #7, and the BAIC E-Series, rising also one position to #8.

Pl	WORLD	Oct.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	2.949	38.908	10	1
2	Tesla Model S	3.345	36.302	9	3
3	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	3.734	32.503	8	2
4 5 6	BYD Qin BMW i3 Renault Zoe	2.209 2.150 1.841	28.365 20.190 13.623	7 5 4	7 6 9
7	Chevrolet Volt (1)	2.264	12.872	3	4
8	BAIC E-Series EV	2.344	12.688	3	16
9	Volkswagen e-Golf	1.334	12.626	3	21
10	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.481	11.691	3	33
	TOTAL	51.698	385.843

Manufacturers -  BYD is the Best Selling Brand

This was the fifth sixth consecutive month that BYD won the Best Selling Manufacturer title, again with a new personal record (6.101 units), the chinese carmaker has finally surpassed Nissan, being now the Best Selling EV Manufacturer of the year, a novelty for any chinese carmaker. 

And to think BYD ended 2014 in Seventh...

In the race for #3, another position change, Mitsubishi is now ahead, benefiting from the restyled Outlander and a more complete lineup, but with only 311 units separating it from Tesla, a lot can still happen until the end of the year.

In the low end of the manufacturers ranking, things remain pretty leveled, Kandi surpassed Ford and is now #8, while Zotye reached #10, surpassing Chevrolet, now #11, but only 136 units behind the chinese carmaker.

Pl	WORLD	Oct.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	BYD	6.101	43.073	11	7
2	Nissan	3.115	42.012	11	1
3	Mitsubishi	4.144	36.623	9	2
4	Tesla	3.349	36.312	9	3
5 6 7	Volkswagen BMW Renault	3.774 2.937 2.568	27.755 25.470 20.136	7 7 5	11 9 8
8	Kandi	5.081	17.201	4	10
9	Ford	1.776	17.117	4	5
10	Zotye	2.609	15.384	4	13

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

Markets Roundup October 2015

Renault Twizy in Colombia

Renault Twizy: To Boldly Go Where No Other EV Has Gone Before

After the initial craze, when sales hit 9.000 units in 2012, the Renault Twizy sales have now stabilized around 2.500 units per year, probably a number that the french manufacturer had hoped to sell every month, helas but, there is a silver lining to be seen here, while the tiny two seater continues to see its sales shrink in its native Europe (Down 15% regarding 2014), in the rest of the world sales are actually booming, if last year there some 115 Twizzies registered outside Europe, from January until now we are with 268...Admittedly, these are small numbers, but the interesting bit is where these cars are registered:

-  203 units were registered in Colombia, 27 in Malaysia and 19 in Tahiti, all new territories for the Renault ZE sub-brand;

- 19 units in Morocco, slightly less than the 22 units registered in October'14, but still a good result.

The shining result of the Twizy in Colombia allows it to have 0,1% of the local market, therefore placing the EV share in Colombia also at 0,1%, thus placing that market at the forefront of EV's in Latin America, along with Costa Rica.

All referred markets are considered uncharted territory for EV's, so the tiny french vehicle could be considered as a pathfinder for the rest of the plug-in crowd, searching for ev-friendly markets "Where no other EV has gone before".


 








Trends in the G8, in Twitter-like sentences

- Volt II arrives in the US, @1;

- Outlander PHEV @1 in Japan, #Finally;

- Outlander PHEV, King Of England;

- Zoe rules in France, e-Golf in Norway;

- Soul EV @1 in Germany, #Really?;

- Netherlands sales shoot up, #2013;

- China goes interstellar, #Kandi @1.


Trends in other Markets, in Twitter-like sentences

- Volt II arrives in Canada, next stop @1;

- Smart Fortwo ED, Winner2Go in Spain;

- Tesla #1, @Switzerland, @Denmark, @Austria, @Hong Kong, @Finland;

- Belgium @Foto-Finish, #Model S, #Cayenne Plug-In 

Japan October 2015

Outlander PHEV Number One

Another month in the red, with sales down 30% YoY to 1.785 units, and the EV Share at a paltry 0.52%, a long way down from the 0,98% of last year.

Besides low gas prices, another reason for this poor performance is the 30kWh version of the Nissan Leaf, only set to arrive in December and leading customers to wait for the new version, until then, Nissan's electric hatch is left with slow sales, like the 359 units recorded last month, down 69%(!) regarding October '14, On the other hand, the Mitsu Outlander PHEV is now firm in #1, and unless the Leaf pulls out a record-breaking performance in December, Mitsu will see its plug-in SUV finally be crowned as the Best Selling EV in its home market, after two previously failed attempts and recover the Best Selling Manufacturer Trophy, after losing in 2014 to the arch-rival Nissan.

Pl	Japan	Oct.	2015	%	Pl '14
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	1.145	9.664	44	2
2	Nissan Leaf	359	7.962	36	1
3	Toyota Prius Plug-In	52	1.360	6	3
4	BMW i3 e)	100	1.000	5	6
5	Mitsubishi I-Miev	21	576	3	4
6 7 8 9 10 10	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia e) Tesla Model S e) Mitsubishi Minicab Miev Mit. Minicab Miev Truck BMW i8 e) Honda Accord Plug-In	50 25 26 4 5 2	500 464 453 142 50 32	2 2 2 1 0 0	N/A 7 5 8 10 9
	TOTAL	1.789	22.205	100

e) Estimate

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

Europe October 2015

Headed Norway, are we?

Soul EV Star of the Month Edition

More than 16.000 units were sold last month in the European EV market, up an impressive 86% YoY, and with over 135.000 registered this year, YTD sales are headed for over 150k 170k units this year, a significant improvement over the 100k registered in 2014.

Looking at the monthly models ranking, the Mitsu Outlander PHEV is fully profiting from the restyled version, selling 2.509 units, head and shoulders above the Number Two in October, the surprising Renault Zoe, with 1.822 units, its best performance of the year and the best pure electric in the ranking.

In Third we have the VW Golf GTE (1.481 units, best result since July), followed by the Star of the Month Kia Soul EV, that jumped to Fourth thanks to 1.215 units, shattering its previous record of 626 units recorded in September, most of them were registered in Germany, but we all know where they are really headed Norway...

By the way, here is a possible explanation as to why these strange sales transfer occurs between Germany and Norway...Spoiler Alert: It has to do with Carbon Dioxide.

In #5 we have the Good Ol' Nissan Leaf, back to its usual low thousand-something '15 average, waiting for the 30kWh early next year to have a new jump in sales.

A couple of models outside the Top 5 deserve a mention, the VW Passat GTE became the Best-Selling D-Segment car and reached #9 last month, while the Volvo XC90 T8 Plug-in Hybrid became the Best Selling Luxury SUV (287 units) in October, ahead of the chronicle leader, Porsche Cayenne Plug-in (243 units) and the other rising star, the BMW X5 40e PHEV (240 sales).

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2.509
2	Renault Zoe	1.822
3	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.481
4	Kia Soul EV	1.215
5	Nissan Leaf	1.125

Looking at the YTD ranking, there aren't changes in the Top 10, but some models reached closer to its forerunners: #3 Zoe is only 384 units behind the #2 Leaf, #5 Golf GTE is just 84 units behind the Model S and the #10 Kia Soul EV is 72 units behind the #9 Volvo V60 Plug-in, so a lot can happen in these spots.

But it's below the Top 10 that thing become really interesting: The Porsche Cayenne Plug-In and Mercedes C350e climb one position to #12 and #13, respectively while the Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia twins drop two positions to #14, registering only 99 units, their worst result in over a year. Are they also feeling the 30kWh syndrome?

Another model with slowing sales is the VW e-Up!, with its worst result ever, only 135 units, another position to  #16, considering the free fall it is experiencing in the ranking, last year the little VW was #6, the german brand should give the e-Up! a substantial price cut, overcoming the largest problem that model has: Price.

The problems of some are the benefits of others, and the Mercedes B-Class ED benefited from the e-Up!'s woes to climb another position to #15, signaling another positive month for Mercedes.

Looking at newcomers in the ranking, the Volkswagen Passat GTE climbed nine positions to #21, the BMW X5 40e already joined the ranking at #30, while knocking at the door, there is another posh SUV: The Volvo XC90 T8 is #31, with 289 units...And there are more rookies waiting to join the ranking, like the #33 BMW 225xe Active Tourer is #33, or down a bit further, two more luxury SUV's: The Mercedes GLE500e and the Audi Q7 e-Tron.

In the brands ranking, Volkswagen is stable in the lead of Europe's EV Manufacturers Throne (18%), followed by Mitsubishi (16%) in Second and Renault in Third, with 13%, while Nissan is #4, with 12%, down 1% share.

Pl	Europe	Oct.	2015	%	'14Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2.509	22.061	16	1
2	Nissan Leaf	1.125	13.899	10	2
3	Renault Zoe	1.822	13.515	10	3
4	Tesla Model S	992	11.775	9	4
5	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1.481	11.691	8	22
6	Volkswagen e-Golf	738	9.475	7	9
7	Audi A3 e-Tron	965	8.841	6	19
8	BMW i3	948	8.309	6	5
9 10 11	Volvo V60 Plug-In Kia Soul EV Renault Kangoo ZE	595 1.215 349	4.185 4.113 3.011	3 3 2	7 23 8
12	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	243	2.622	2	28
13	Mercedes C350e	371	2.599	2	N/A
14	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	99	2.452	2	12
15 16 17 18	Mercedes B-Class ED Volkwagen e-Up! BMW i8 Renault Twizy	212 135 107 173	2.336 2.327 1.781 1.743	2 2 1 1	29 6 15 11
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30	Smart Fortwo ED Peugeot iOn Volkswagen Passat GTE Bolloré Blue Car Citröen C-Zero Mitsubishi I-Miev Mercedes S500e Toyota Prius Plug-In Ford C-Max Energi Porsche Panamera Plug-In BMW X5 40e Goupil	256  151 824 202 125 65 48 22 66 32 240 47	1.719 1.268 1.067 953 812 664 621 554 551 501 371 359	1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	10 21 N/A 13 20 17 31 14 N/A 18 N/A 24
	TOTAL	16.614	137.797	100

Belgium October 2015

Two contestants, only one winner: Who will it be?

Cayenne Plug-In Reaches (even) Closer to #1

Some 300 EV's were sold in Belgium last month, up 111% YoY, placing the EV Share at 0,75% and with YTD sales at 3.222 units, will we see sales reach 4.000 this year?

The two on the front continue their close run, the Tesla Model S (55 units) losing a bit more ground to the Porsche Cayenne Plug-In (72 sales), with the difference between both now at just 33 16 units.

In the rest of the ranking, the Audi A3 e-Tron had its best selling month since it landed, registering 25 units, while the Nissan Leaf registered only one single unit, the worst performance in four years(!), allowing the Mitsu Outlander PHEV and the aforementioned A3 e-Tron to rise one position, to #6 and #7, respectively, dropping the japanese car to #8. The 30kWh version can't come soon enough...

Great landing by the BMW X5 PHEV, registering right away 17 units, already leaving its direct competitor Mercedes GLE500e far behind, with the Merc only registering one unit in its debut month.

In the manufacturers ranking, everything remains the same, with Porsche leading (24%), followed closely by Tesla (22%) and BMW in Third, with 15%.

Pl	Belgium	Oct.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Tesla Model S	55	695	22	1
2	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	72	679	21	14
3 4	BMW i3 * VW Golf GTE	30 11	335 216	10 7	2 23
5	Volvo V60 Plug-In	20	190	6	6
6	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	25	170	5	5
7	Audi A3 e-Tron	25	164	5	15
8	Nissan Leaf	1	157	5	4
9	BMW i8	5	135	4	9
10	Porsche Panamera Plug-In	4	88	3	3
11	Mercedes B-Class ED	4	62	2	N/A
12	Mercedes S500e	7	55	2	N/A
13 14 15 16	Renault Twizy VW e-Golf Renault Zoe Smart Fortwo ED	1 1 5 2	50 33 30 27	2 1 1 1	8 10 7 10
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 24 26 26 26 29 30 30	Mercedes C350e VW e-Up! Peugeot iOn BMW X5 40e PHEV Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Kia Soul EV Porsche 918 Ford Focus Electric Opel Ampera Mitsubishi I-Miev Volkswagen XL1 McLaren P1 Toyota Prius Plug-In Citröen C-Zero Mercedes GLE500e	4 2 7 17 1	25 22 21 17 15 13 7 3 3 2 2  2 2 1 1	1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	N/A 12 17 N/A 18 18 21 N/A 16 18 N/A 23 23 23 N/A
	TOTAL	299	3.222	100

Source: febiac.be

* - 9 Bev + 21 Rex

Portugal October 2015

Has the Zoe finally reached its full potential?

  
Renault Zoe Excels Edition

EV Sales are rising in Portugal, something that is particularly visible in Lisbon's Metropolitan Area, with sales doubling regarding the same month last year, and with YTD sales now at 872 units (Will we reach 1.000 by year end?), the EV Share is steady at 0,57%, a significant departure from the 0,25% of last year.

Looking at the models ranking, the Mitsu Outlander PHEV stayed #1 in the YTD chart, but the surprise of the month belonged to another model...

The Renault Zoe sold a record 19 units, just the second time it reached the two digit area, collecting only its second Monthly Best Seller trophy ever (The first was in Dec. '14), an odd fact for a model that has been on sale for over two years, especially considering that Renault has the largest dealership network in Portugal and is the best selling automotive brand.

Does this mean Renault's sales force is finally willing to sell the Zoe?

As the song says: "Que sera, sera / Whatever will be, will be / The future's not ours to see / Que sera sera..."

In the manufacturers ranking, Mitsubishi (24% Share) is first, followed by Nissan (20%), Renault (19%, up 1%) and BMW (14%).

Pl	Portugal	Oct.	2015	%	Pl '14
1	Mitsu Outlander PHEV e)	10	205	24	4
2	Nissan Leaf	15	161	18	2
3 4	BMW i3 * Renault Zoe	16 19	116 81	13 9	1 5
5 6 7 7 9 10 11 12 13	Renault Twizy Peugeot iOn Toyota Prius Plug-In Volkswagen Golf GTE Renault Kangoo ZE Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Tesla Model S Mercedes B-Class ED Audi A3 e-Tron	4 1	54 49 28 28 21 14 13 12 11	6 6 3 3 2 2 2 1 1	3 20 12 N/A 8 8 N/A N/A N/A
13 13 16 17 17 17 20 20 22 23 24 25 25	Volvo V60 Plug-In BMW i8 Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Volkswagen e-Up! Mercedes S500 Plug-In Volkswagen e-Golf Mitsubishi I-Miev Smart Fortwo ED Opel Ampera Porsche Panamera Plug-In Citroen C-Zero Citroen Berlingo EV Kia Soul EV	2 1 1	11 11 10 8 8 8 6 6 4 3 2 1 1	1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0	14 7 13 11 N/A 15 15 6 18 8 20 20 N/A
	TOTAL	69	872	100

Source: ACAP

Hong Kong October 2015

Hong Kong and Tesla love affair doesn´t seem to end

Tesla and the Rest

The Hong Kong EV Market continues hot as hot cakes, with an EV Share of 2.53%, the fourth highest in the world, only behind Iceland, Netherlands and Norway, with the current 1.162 units sold this year simply obliterating previous records, as is the EV Share, up five-fold(!) regarding last years 0,46%...

There aren't official numbers, but Tesla has been an undeniable success, leaving the rest of the EV competitors in the dust, with the once promising BMW i3 registering only eight units last month, a far cry from the 30-something average of the first half of the year, but with 206 units to date (A 53% increase YoY), it is a success in its own way. 

In a van-friendly market, the e-NV200 is Third, while the Nissan Leaf might still remove the BMW i8 from #4 until year end.  

But back to Tesla, with the EV market pretty much all to itself, the american car can now focus on their real competitors, the E-Segment luxury sedans from Mercedes, BMW and Audi...

Right now, the Model S is Second, behind the Mercedes E-Class (98 sales in October, 948 YTD) and ahead of the BMW 5-Series (77/636), the prospects for the future will be that it will be hard to remove the E-Class from the leadership (Rich people do love their Mercs here, last month the S-Class sold 88 units!), but a comfortable second is most likely, which is a great sign for future acceptance of EV's in this market.

Pl	Hong Kong	Oct.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1 2	Tesla Model S e) BMW i3	80 8	830 206	71 18	1 2
3	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	3	59	5	N/A
4	BMW i8		39	3	7
5 6	Nissan Leaf Mitsubishi I-Miev	11	27 1	2 0	3 5
TOTAL		102	1.162	100

Source: BSCB

e) Estimate