Europe May 2016 (Updated)

Restyled Volkswagen e-Up!. A little make-up for the little electric VW

Top Three in Close Race

The European EV market had more than 14.000 registrations in May, representing a 9% increase over May 2015, a slight decrease in growth, due to the upcoming fiscal benefits in Germany. Nevertheless, the market is set to surpass the 200.000 units by year end, possibly even reaching 240.000 units.

Looking at the Monthly Ranking:

#1 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – The Japanese SUV won once again the Best Seller status in May, with 1.707 units, but YoY sales were down by a third, with the runner-up ending just 50 units behind, the leadership is well open to discussion in the coming months. Although growing elsewhere, like Norway or Sweden, Mitsubishi still hasn’t found a way to replace the average 300/400 units/month it had last year in the Dutch market, where it registered just 16 units last month.

 

#2 Renault Zoe – Continuing with its best sales streak since it started, back in 2012, last month saw its sales grow 35% YoY to 1.657 units, its best May ever, the little French hatchback is finally fulfilling expectations, with Renault actively selling the car (At last!), it will be a question of time until the Zoe reach #1, especially considering that its second largest market, Germany, will have a welcome incentives-derived boost in the near future.

 

#3 Nissan Leaf – With deliveries back at cruising speed, sales of the Japanese hatch were up 38% in May, to 1.362 units, not that far from the top two models. The Japanese hatch continues to sell in large quantities, especially in Norway and France, but the question is for how long, as longer range BEV’s (New BMW i3, 2017 Opel Ampera-e…) might sway away buyers from the most common EV in the world.

 

#4 VW Passat GTE – Thanks to the Scandinavian markets (685 units sold there), Volkswagen’s midsize offering reached the Fourth Position in May, with 1.035 units, the best score this year and its best place in the monthly ranking so far. With the right mix of space, practicality, low carbon emissions and power, the Passat GTE is destined to success as company car for middle managers across Europe.

 

#5 Mercedes C350e – The surprise of the month, Mercedes midsize plug-in offering managed to reach the Top 5 last month, with 780 units, a year best, with stringent emission legislation spreading across Europe, many fleet buyers are switching diesel-burners for their plug-in hybrid alternatives, as is this case, with only 30 kms of electric range, this car has “compliance car” written all over it.

YTD Ranking

Looking at the YTD ranking, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is in the highest place of the ranking, but barely, with the Renault Zoe less than 20 units behind and the Nissan Leaf in Third, only 128 units below, it looks to be an entertaining race to follow, although, if I had to bet, I would go with the Zoe winning the trophy…

If the sprint for the leadership is very much open to discussion, the apparent race for #4 will no longer exist in June, with Tesla presumably delivering a tsunami of Model S, and the VW Golf GTE affected (Sales down 50% YoY in May) by its Passat GTE sibling success, the German sporty hatch will inclusively have a hard time to resist the expected sales surge that the longer range BMW i3 should have during the summer.

Talking about Volkswagen, this month was a mixed bag for the Wolfsburg automaker: In the PHEV front, the Passat GTE had a year best performance and jumped two positions to #8, but on the other hand, the Golf GTE saw its sales dive by half, while on the BEV front, the e-Golf had its worst performance (479 units) since 2014, dropping two positions to #10, with the e-Up! pulling its best performance (281 units) in a year, thanks to the recent restyle.

Looking at the brands ranking, the trophy bearer, Volkswagen (16%) has won a little more advantage over Renault (14%, down 1% share), while in Third we have Nissan, with 13%, trying to keep the #4 BMW (12%) and #5 Mitsubishi (12%) outside the podium.

Article also published in CleanTechnica and EV Obsession

Pl	Europe	May	2016	%	'15Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	1.707	9.472	12	1
2	Renault Zoe	1.657	9.454	12	2
3	Nissan Leaf	1.362	9.344	12	5
4	Tesla Model S	570	5.360	7	4
5	Volkswagen Golf GTE	768	4.959	6	3
6	BMW i3	629	4.292	5	6
7	Volvo XC90 T8	774	4.213	5	18
8	Volkswagen Passat GTE	1.035	3.515	4	12
9 10 11	Mercedes C350e Volkswagen e-Golf Audi A3 e-Tron	780 479 446	3.491 3.386 2.905	4 4 4	11 4 7
12	BMW X5 40e	419	2.142	3	22
13	Renault Kangoo ZE	217	1.537	2	13
14 15	BMW 225xe Active Tourer Kia Soul EV	420 309	1.516 1.503	2 2	31 10
16 17	BMW 330e Volvo V60 Plug-In	451 288	1.421 1.377	2 2	37 9
18 19 20	Mercedes B250e Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	325 267 187	1.281 1.204 1.147	2 1 1	17 14 15
	TOTAL	14.749	81.065