Belgium September 2016

The Three SUV's Of the Apocalipse that lead the Belgian EV market

Records Galore Edition

September was a record month in Belgium, with plug-ins prolonging the 2016 hot sales trend for another month, with 1.006 units, up 224%(!), with the EV Share up to a record 1.7%, a stark departure from the 0.7% of last year.

As usual in this fashion-victim market, trendy Tesla and SUV's continue to rule, with 6 out of the top 7 places in September belonging to such vehicles: The BMW X5 PHEV (170 units, personal record) won another Monthly Best-Seller trophy, followed by the arch rival Volvo XC90 T8 (132 units) and the Tesla Model S (74), while tied in #4 we have the Tesla Model X and BMW 330e, with 72 units. In #6 we have the Porsche Cayenne Plug-in (67 units), followed by the Audi Q7 e-Tron (58), another model that seems destined for success in this market.

Next to all these shiny & trendy plug-ins, the BMW sedan almost looks like a plebeian...

Looking at the YTD ranking, no surprises in the top positions, we have to go down to #12 to see some changes, with the VW Passat GTE (22 units) rising one position to #12, but the headline news are the Tesla Model X shooting 13 positions to #15 and the Audi Q7 e-Tron up 9 positions to #17

Underlining the never-ending appetite of this market for SUV's, the Mercedes GLC350e (34 units, pb) was also up, to #19.

Another model with a great start is the BMW 740e, which scored 51 units, with only two months on the market, is already ahead of the F-segment, leaving the Merc S500e to shame...

In the manufacturers ranking, leader BMW (30%, up 1%) continues to increase share, while Volvo (20%) is Second. There is an interesting race for Third Place, with Porsche (10%), Mercedes (10%) and Tesla (9%) all running for the last place of the podium.

Looking at the BEV/PHEV breakdown, Belgium is starting to look more and more like the Netherlands, with plug-in hybrids increasing their share to 74%, up 21%(!) regarding last year. 

Pl	Belgium	Sept.	YTD	%	'15Pl
1	Volvo XC90 T8	132	1.296	18	13
2	BMW X5 40e	170	999	14	15
3 4	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Tesla Model S	67 74	657 531	9 7	2 1
5	Nissan Leaf	22	393	6	8
6	BMW 225xe Active Tourer	40	373	5	N/A
7	BMW 330e	72	325	5	N/A
8	BMW i3 *	37	284	4	3
9	Mercedes C350e	18	239	3	16
10	Mercedes GLE500e	22	216	3	27
11	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	13	171	2	6
12 13 14 15 16 17 18	Volkswagen Passat GTE Renault Zoe Audi A3 e-Tron Tesla Model X Volvo V60 Plug-In Audi Q7 e-Tron BMW i8	22 11 2 72 9 58 10	165 164 101 99 98 97 94	2 2 1 1 1 1 1	33 18 7 N/A 4 N/A 9
19 20 21 22 23	Mercedes GLC350e Volkswagen Golf GTE Mercedes B250e BMW 740e Mercedes S500e	34 9 8 51 2	93 82 81 69 68	1 1 1 1 1	N/A 5 11 N/A 14
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34	Toyota Prius Plug-In Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia ** Renault Twizy Porsche Panamera Plug-In Renault Kangoo ZE  Volkswagen e-Golf Kia Soul EV Peugeot iOn Citroen C-Zero Volkswagen e-Up! Citröen e-Mehari Others	20 6 12 1 1 2 2 4 1 2	66 65 62 56 44 34 25 18 14 13 7 21	1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	25 21 15 10 N/A 17 23 20 24 21 N/A
	TOTAL	1.006	7.120	100

Source: FEBIAC

* - 21 Bev + 16 Rex
** - 3 Pass + 3 LCV

Plug-Ins Versus Regular Hybrids

Pl	Model	Sept. 2016
1	Toyota RAV4 Hybrid	277
2	Toyota Auris Hybrid	249
3	BMW X5 40e	170
4	Toyota Yaris Hybrid	152
5	Volvo XC90 T8	132

If we combine September regular hybrid sales with plug-ins, the Toyota Hybrids lost the last place of the podium to the BMW X5 PHEV, while the trendiest of the Toyota's, the RAV4, retained highest place of the ranking.

Last month there was a second plug-in joining this Top 5, with the Volvo XC90 T8 reaching the Fifth Place, ahead of the Toyota Prius (112 units).