Europe December 2015

Historic Month Edition

Last December had an historic result, with more than 33.000 units sold in Europe, 72% more than the previous all-time high reached in the previous month, with total YTD sales ending at 193.000 units, almost doubling the 100k registered in 2014 and the EV Share finally surpassing the 1% barrier, with 1.25% Share.

A perfect storm motivated this historic result, with incentive changes derived sales rushes in The Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, pushing numbers artificially up, so expect an early 2016 in slow mode...  

With such unusual numbers, the monthly ranking surged numbers leading to several all-time records:

- The Outlander PHEV shattered its previous sales record (5.003 in December '13), registering 6.475 units, a new monthly record for a single model in Europe;

- The Golf GTE (3.191) and Passat GTE (2.357) have beaten their personal bests, with the larger VW reaching #5 and appearing for the first time in the Top 5, probably the first of many...

- The Tesla Model S (3.124) and Renault Zoe (3.114) not only have beaten their pb, but have also beaten the previous monthly sales record for a pure electric car, with the american model winning the record by just 10 units;

- The BMW i3 (1.718 units), Mercedes C350e (1.624), Audi A3 e-Tron (1.514), BMW X5 PHEV (838) and Porsche Cayenne Plug-In (381) all reached new record highs, underlining the increasing importance of german models (And PHEV's) in the ranking;

- Two of the models where the numbers have been more artificially inflated with the Dutch sales rush were the Volvo XC90 PHEV (1.633 units, new record) and Ford C-Max Energi (580, ditto), which have made more than 90% of their european sales in that country, with the american model selling more in the Netherlands (580) than in its home market (579);

- Even the veteran Renault Kangoo ZE has beaten its sales record, registering 742 units and thus beating a three year old record (626 units in November 2012), pushing the LCV monthly record further higher.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	6.475
2	VW Golf GTE	3.191
3	Tesla Model S	3.124
4	Renault Zoe	3.114
5	VW Passat GTE	2.357

Looking at the YTD ranking, the Top Two stayed the same, with the Outlander PHEV renewing its 2014 Best Seller title, while the Renault Zoe won its first Best Selling BEV title, recovering the Second Place won in 2013.

The Third position had a new owner in the last month of the year, with the Nissan Leaf tumbling two positions to #5, with the Bronze medal going to the VW Golf GTE and the #4 once again going to the Tesla Model S.

Another model dropping in the ranking was the VW e-Golf, down two positions to #8, to the benefit of the BMW i3, ending the year in #6, up two positions regarding November.

Below the Top 10 there is also plenty of action: The Mercedes C350e climbs one position to end 2015 in #11, the rising star Volkswagen Passat GTE jumped five more positions, ending in #12, will this be the 2016 D-Segment/midsize class Best Seller?

The Volvo XC90 T8 Plug-In also jumped five positions in the ranking, to #18, while the BMW X5 40e Plug-In also climbed three positions to #22. With these two models selling in such large quantities, it will be hard fot the Porsche Cayenne Plug-In to keep the Best Selling Luxury SUV title this year.

In the brands ranking, Volkswagen (18% share, down 1%) won its first european EV Manufacturers Title, followed by Mitsubishi (16%) in Second and Renault in Third, with 13%, while last year medalist Nissan ended in #4, with 10%, down 1% share regarding last November and down 8% YoY.

Below, you will find the 2015 Trophy Room:

Best Selling PHEV & SUV: Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, 31.340 units. The japanese model won for the third consecutive year these two titles, with its sales up 63% YoY and no direct competition, how high will Mitsu's SUV reach in 2016?

Best Selling BEV & Small Car: Renault Zoe, 18.670 units. Finally removing the Nissan Leaf from the BEV leadership, the Zoe saw its sales grow 66% and on top of that, won for the third consecutive time the Best Selling Small Car title;

Rookie Of The Year: Mercedes C350e, 5.069 units. The german model follows on another teutonic car, the VW e-Golf (3.328 units in '14), but had to sweat in the end to keep the VW Passat GTE (4.685) at bay. If the year had 13 months, we might be telling a different story...

Best Selling LCV: Renault Kangoo ZE, 4.328 units. Europe's favorite electric LCV since it appeared in 2011, the french van had a much needed sales push in the second half of the year to win a comfortable lead over the increasingly menacing Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia twins (3.049 units), to have an idea on how close they were, in August the two vans were separated by just 100 units.

Pl	Europe	Dec.	2015	%	'14Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	6.475	31.340	16	1
2	Renault Zoe	3.114	18.670	10	3
3	Volkswagen Golf GTE	3.191	17.282	9	22
4	Tesla Model S	3.124	16.455	9	4
5	Nissan Leaf	839	15.515	8	2
6	BMW i3	1.718	11.820	6	5
7	Audi A3 e-Tron	1.514	11.711	6	19
8	Volkswagen e-Golf	677	11.124	6	9
9 10 11	Volvo V60 Plug-In Kia Soul EV Mercedes C350e	1.906 975 1.624	6.952 5.800 5.069	4 3 3	7 23 N/A
12	Volkswagen Passat GTE	2.357	4.686	2	N/A
13	Renault Kangoo ZE	742	4.328	2	8
14	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	381	3.350	2	28
15 16 17 18 19	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Volkswagen e-Up! Mercedes B-Class ED Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV Renault Twizy	270 182 182 1.633 118	3.049 2.769 2.760 2.653 1.917	2 1 1 1 1	12 6 29 N/A 11
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30	BMW i8 Smart Fortwo ED BMW X5 40e PHEV Peugeot iOn Ford C-Max Energi Bolloré Blue Car Citröen C-Zero Mercedes S500e Mitsubishi I-Miev Toyota Prius Plug-In Porsche Panamera Plug-In	115 56 838  189 538 83 41 108 23 39 46	2.027 2.013 1.649 1.566 1.230 1.166 1.118 807 708 704 606	1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0	15 10 N/A 21 N/A 13 20 31 17 14 18
	TOTAL	33.717	193.439	100

BEV

PHEV

EV's in the Manufacturers sales mix

An interesting stat is to see how much share EV's represent in each manufacturers sales mix, below you will find the Top 3 with highest share, with the exception of Tesla, for obvious reasons:

1. Mitsubishi (24%)

2. Porsche (6%)

3. Volvo and Nissan (3%)

In all other manufacturers, EV's represent less than 3% of their sales mix.