USA January 2016

Back to #1

(Small) Recovery Edition

With sales above 6.000 units, the numbers were up 5% YoY, it looks that the US EV market is back in positive territory for good.

After two years away from the leadership, the Chevy Volt is back at #1, although numbers are still small (It's January, slowest selling month of the year), it is a positive sign or recovery for the american car, now in its second generation.

After a deliveries push in the last couple of months, the 2015 leader, Tesla Model S, slowed down and dropped to #2, something that can be explained for being the first month of the Quarter (Is always the slowest), but also because of the ramping up of production of the Model X, #5 in January with 370 deliveries, how high in the ranking the Electric-Sports-SUV-Minivan will reach? It all depends on Tesla priorities, but i wouldn't be surprised to see it fight for a podium seat once it is on full-production mode.

The #3 Nissan Leaf started the year with 755 units, its worst January since 2013, while the most recent arrivals continue to have encouraging performances, like the Audi A3 e-Tron (327 units) already reaching its cousin VW e-Golf in the ranking, the Volvo XC90 PHEV reaching #10, with 226 units, ahead of last year class leader, Porsche Cayenne Plug-In (146 units) and BMW X5 PHEV (181). Good performance also by the Hyundai Sonata Plug-In (175 sales) continuing to improve its sales level.

In the manufacturers ranking, Tesla (19%) started ahead, but Chevrolet (18%) and Ford (16%) are too close for the all-electric brand to rest.

Pl	USA	Jan.	YTD	%
1	Chevrolet Volt	996	996	16
2	Tesla Model S e)	809	809	13
3	Nissan Leaf	755	755	12
4	Ford Fusion Energi	581	581	9
5	Tesla Model X	370	370	6
6	Ford C-Max Energi	350	350	6
7	Volkswagen e-Golf	328	328	5
8	Audi A3 e-Tron	327	327	5
9	Fiat 500e	275	275	4
10	Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV	226	226	4
11	BMW i3	182	182	3
12 13 14 15	BMW X5 40e PHEV Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Chevrolet Spark EV	181 175 146 139	181 175 146 139	3 3 2 2
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25	Kia Soul EV Cadillac ELR Ford Focus Electric Mercedes B250e Smart Fortwo ED BMW i8 Por. Panamera Plug-In Mercedes S550e Toyota Prius Plug-In Mitsubishi I-Miev	81 67 66 58 48 32 27 19 10 2	81 67 66 58 48 32 27 19 10 2	1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
	TOTAL	6.250	6.250	100

e) Estimate

Source: insideevs.com; Good Car Bad Car

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	2016
1	BMW 5-Series	3.795
2	Mercedes E-Class	2.503
3	Lexus GS	1.295
4	Cadillac CTS	1.013
5 6	Audi A6 Tesla Model S e)	841 809

  

For the first month of 2016, the Model S had a slow sales month, with the Lexus GS, Cadillac CTS and Audi A6 all surpassing it.

(1) - Unlike markets across the pond, the full-size car market in the US is much more diversified, with Chevy Impalas, Malibu's, 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.