Belgium December 2016

Volvo XC90 T8 wins SUV race in hot market 

2016 was a record year in Belgium, with almost 10.000 plug-ins sold, up 146% YoY, confirming it as one of the hottest markets in the world, with the EV Share ending at 1.8%, a stark departure from the 0.8% of last year.

If there was one word phrase to define the Belgian plug-in market in 2016, it would be "PHEV Luxury SUV", as all podium positions went to that class, with the Volvo XC90 winning Gold (1.584 units), the BMW X5 (1.282) Silver and the Porsche Cayenne (807) Bronze.

Within the Top 10 there is room for another two representatives of that class, with the rising star Audi Q7 e-Tron ending in #10 and the Mercedes GLE500e in #9, making it five PHEV Luxury SUV's in the Top 10. In Belgium. Not Switzerland, Belgium.

Looking at the remaining 2016 positions, the BMW 330e climbed to #5, becoming the Rookie of the Year, the 2015 Best Seller Tesla Model S was down to Fourth, but remained the Best Selling BEV, while the #8 BMW i3 was the Best Selling Small Car doubling the sales of the Renault Zoe, Second Placed of this class.

In the manufacturers ranking, leader BMW (31%) won the top spot, followed by Volvo (18%) in Second and Mercedes (11%), ahead of Tesla and Porsche, both with 9% share.

This is BMW's first Belgian title, following on Porsche (2015) and Tesla (2014).

Looking at the BEV/PHEV breakdown, Belgium's plug-in growth is heavily influenced by PHEV-friendly legislation plug-ins hybrids, with this technology increasing their share in 2016 to 74%, up 21%(!) regarding the previous year. 

Final mention to the nine registrations of the Toyota Mirai, seven more than in 2015, will we see it reach 25 units during 2017? (Sarcasm detector off) It's ambitious, but possible, don't you think? 

Pl	Belgium	Dec.	YTD	%	'15Pl
1	Volvo XC90 T8	84	1.584	17	13
2	BMW X5 40e	74	1.282	13	15
3 4	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Tesla Model S	34 76	807 675	8 7	2 1
5	BMW 330e	45	511	5	N/A
6	BMW 225xe Active Tourer	26	505	5	N/A
7	Nissan Leaf	22	466	5	8
8	BMW i3 *	41	430	4	3
9	Mercedes GLE500e	18	311	3	27
10	Audi Q7 e-Tron	56	306	3	N/A
11	Mercedes C350e	14	283	3	16
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Mercedes GLC350e Volkswagen Passat GTE Renault Zoe Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Tesla Model X BMW 740e Volvo V60 Plug-In Audi A3 e-Tron BMW i8	37 16 8 8 56 16 8 15 3	253 216 210 192 184 149 142 138 106	3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1	N/A 33 18 6 N/A N/A 4 7 9
21 22 23 24	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Volkswagen Golf GTE Mercedes B250e Toyota Prius Plug-In	9 4 4 6	103 99 96 94	1 1 1 1	21 5 11 25
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35	Mercedes S500e Renault Twizy Porsche Panamera Plug-In Renault Kangoo ZE  Volkswagen e-Golf Kia Soul EV Peugeot iOn Volkswagen e-Up! Citroen C-Zero Citröen e-Mehari Hyundai Ioniq Electric Others	5 4 1 3 6 1 1 4 2 3 3	81 80 57 52 44 29 24 20 16 11 10 29	1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	14 15 10 N/A 17 23 20 21 24 N/A N/A
	TOTAL	714	9.595	100

Source: FEBIAC

* - 23 Bev + 18 Rex