Friday, January 13, 2017

Norway December 2016

Image result for 2016 bmw i3 in norway

 
Outlander PHEV Wins Best Selling Model Award

There were 3.667 new plug-ins sold in Norway last month, up 26% YoY, pulling the full year figures up to 45.662 units (Largest market in Europe), with the 2016 EV Share ending at 29.5%, a significant leap over the 22.8% of 2015 (Which was already a step above the 14% of 2014, and the 6% of 2013, the 3% of 2012...).

The Tesla Model X was the Best Selling plug-in in December, with 425 units, followed by the hot BMW i3, registering another 413 units, while the last place in the podium was for the surprising Audi A3 e-Tron with 369 units, a new personal record, possibly motivated by some nice discounts by the German carmaker.

The Hyundai Ioniq Electric was Fifth with 293 units, despite some production constraints (Apparently the Korean manufacturer wasn't expecting so much demand), the sleek hatchback is confirming itself as a force to be reckoned in 2017.

PlModelSales  
1Tesla Model X425
2BMW i3413
3Audi A3 e-Tron369
4Volkswagen Golf GTE
305
5Hyundai Ioniq Electric293

Looking at the 2016 ranking, we take a close look at the Five Best Selling Models performance:

#1 - Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV: For the first time ever, a PHEV was the Best Selling Plug-in in Norway, most importantly, the Japanese SUV was the Best Selling model, all fuels counted, but more on that below, after a record year (5.136 units), in no small part due to the more generous incentives to PHEV's, the 50 kms e-range SUV filled a gap in the market for decently-priced family-sized plug-ins, with the added comfort of AWD in snowy Norway. This year the PHEV seems easy to win again, it just have to keep an eye on the VW GTE models, but it won't be able to follow the pace of the new long range BEV's.

#2 - Volkswagen e-Golf: Despite a decent first half of the year, the German BEV dropped in the second half, unable to follow the Outlander PHEV in the race for Best Selling Plug-in and ending the year with 4.705 units, a large drop from the 8.943 sold in 2015, which granted at the time that year Best Seller title. Nevertheless, it won the Best Selling BEV Award, and with the new longer-range version coming soon, expect it to be one of the strong contenders for the 2017 Best Seller title.

#3 - Volkswagen Golf GTE: With its all-electric sibling faltering, it was up to the plug-in hybrid Golf to pick up the slack, and with 4.337 units registered, double of what it did in the previous year, it has done a good job at it, ending in Third. Even with a promised larger-battery coming in somewhere this year, don't expect the sporty hatch to repeat the Podium in 2017, as longer range BEV's, like the Opel Ampera-e and Renault Zoe will likely overcome their brands weaknesses and race the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 for a podium seat.

#4 - Nissan Leaf: Norway's most popular EV, with over 20.000 units zooming the streets, the Japanese Hatchback had a year with ups and downs, after a strong beginning, thanks to the new 30kWh version, sales were down in the second half of 2016, no doubt influenced by the upcoming long range BEV's, set to arrive soon, but also by the never-ending rumors of an updated Nissan Leaf, coming somewhere in 2017. This years career will depend greatly of what Nissan has up its sleeve and how fast will it deliver, if it releases a greatly improved Leaf in the first months of the year, then a race for the Best Seller title is possible, if not, then it might not even reach a Top 5 position...

#5 - BMW i3: The German hot hatch 2016 performance proved once again that Size Matters (In batteries, at least), the BMW i3 had by far its best year in 2016, with 3.946 units, but 62% of deliveries were concentrated in the last four months of the year, when the 33 kWh version arrived en masse. With BMW now heavily focused in plug-ins and with another battery upgrade scheduled for late this year, expect it to be one of the strong contenders for the 2017 title.

As for last minute changes, the Mercedes B250e climbed one position to #9, displacing the Renault Zoe to #10, the Tesla Model X jumped to #11, stealing at the same time the Rookie of the Year title from the BMW 225xe AT hands doors.

The good news for BEV's didn't stopped there, as the Nissan e-NV200/Evalia twins (2016 Best Selling LCV's) surpassed the Volvo XC90 PHEV and climbed to #18, while the Hyundai Ioniq Electric ended the year rising to #20. A Top 10 position in 2017 seems to be a given for the Korean model, the question should be, will it sneak into the Top 5?

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen (29%) won another Manufacturers trophy (The third in a row), followed from a far by BMW (14%) and the 2011 trophy winner Mitsubishi (12%), with the two times champion (2012 and '13) Nissan (11%) ending the year just outside the podium.

The BEV / PHEV breakdown confirms the trend for plug-in hybrid rise, with this technology counting in 2016 for a record 44% of all plug-ins sold in Norway, a significant surge from the 25% in 2015. And to think that PHEV's only had 10% share in 2014...

Looking at Fuel Cell numbers, Hyundai won the Best Seller title by 13 to 10 against Toyota, despite the fact that the Japanese Mirai is a more recent model, with better specs. But those looks...  

PlNorwayDec.YTD%'15Pl
1Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV2595.136114
2Volkswagen e-Golf2254.705101
3Volkswagen Golf GTE3054.33796
4Nissan Leaf2574.16293
5BMW i34133.94695
6
7
8
Volkswagen Passat GTE
Audi A3 e-Tron
Tesla Model S
159
369
263
2.552
2.283
2.051
6
5
4
20
7
2
9Mercedes B250e1681.895410
10Renault Zoe751.81848
11
12
13
Tesla Model X
BMW 225xe Active Tourer
Kia Soul EV
425
92
53
1.430
1.332
1.175
3
3
3
N/A
N/A
11
14
Volkswagen e-Up!
1111.14839
15
16
Mercedes C350e
BMW X5 40e
20
17
987
955
2
2
22
19
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35

Volvo V60 Plug-In
Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia *
Volvo XC90 T8
Hyundai Ioniq Electric
Mercedes GLC350e
Audi Q7 e-Tron
Peugeot iOn
BMW 330e
Mitsubishi I-Miev
Citröen C-Zero
Peugeot Partner EV
Mercedes GLE500e
Renault Kangoo ZE
Porsche Cayenne Plug-In
Renault Twizy
Ford Focus Electric
BMW i8
Smart Fortwo ED
Citröen Berlingo EV
Others
22
42
2
293
4
18
7
10
5
6
30

4

10



1
2
730
725
688
646
626
385
335
300
273
214
165
158
131
104
81
47
35
33
30
44
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
12
14
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
13
N/A
26
16
18
27
17
24
29
21
25
15
23


TOTAL3.66745.662100

* - 24 Pass + 26 Lcv

Source: elbil.no; ofvas.no


Models breakdown by Fuel Source

December Ranking

PlModelDec.  
1Volkswagen Tiguan650
2Volvo XC60602
3Tesla Model X425
4BMW i3413
5
6
7
8
9
10
Toyota RAV4
Audi A3 e-Tron
Volkswagen Golf GTE
Hyundai Ioniq Electric
Toyota Yaris
Skoda Octavia
374
369
305
293
292
287

Splitting models by fuel source, December signaled the return of regular ICE models to the top, with the VW Tiguan winning the Best Seller title (Now where's that Tiguan GTE, VW?), followed closely by the surprising Volvo XC60, with the first plug-in arriving in Third, with the Tesla Model X. Interestingly, all podium places belonged to CUV/SUV's...

In the following positions we have the hot BMW i3 (Fourth), the Hybridized RAV4 (#5) and two PHEV's, the Audi A3 e-Tron and VW Golf GTE, with the Hyundai Ioniq Electric reaching #8.

In sum, we have a colourful Top 10, with three BEV's (The i3 only had 1 Rex registered), two PHEV's, two HEV's and three ICE.


Full Year Ranking

PlModel2016  
1Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV5.136
2Toyota RAV44.955
3Volkswagen e-Golf4.705
4Toyota Auris4.419
5
6
7
8
9
10
Volkswagen Golf GTE
Toyota Yaris
Nissan Leaf
Volkswagen Golf ICE
BMW i3
Skoda Octavia
4.337
4.247
4.162
4.106
3.946
3.795

With some 30% share, plug-ins performance in the general ranking are more relevant than ever, besides the aforementioned win of the Outlander PHEV, there were an additional four plug-ins (#3 e-Golf, #5 Golf GTE, #7 Leaf, #9 i3) in the Top 10, add the three HEV's present (#2 RAV4, #4 Auris, #6 Yaris), and we have 80% of the Best Selling models being alternatively fueled vehicles!

In fact, the Best Selling ICE model, the Golf, was only #8 this year, with less than a third of sales of the nameplate, in fact it was the worst selling of all three drivetrains.

One day all markets will be like this...

Will we see something like this on the European market in five years time?

1 comment:

  1. I think 2017 may be a slow year for the BEVs in Norway. There is harder for me to convince people to buy BEVs because the are aware of the generation 3 cars coming. But Norway is not first in que for the M3 and Ampera-e is sold out for 2017, so I think many are waiting out 2017. But from 2018 I expect a steep growth because the number-one-car market start to open up.
    For the PHEVs I am unsure. There can be some change of taxes for the the car turn the sale either way.

    ReplyDelete