World Top 10 January 2017

Models - Nissan Leaf starts at #1

The global EV market had a sales slump last month, with the 39.000 units delivered in January representing a meager 2% growth YoY, this sudden growth drop cannot be attributed to the US market or Europe, but to the dismal performance of the Chinese market.

In the meantime, the Nissan Leaf started the year in the leadership, something that wouldn't be much of a surprise, if it wasn't the oldest model in this Top 10 and the lowest range all-electric car here. Still, it has two important aces: First, it is sold worldwide, second, and most importantly, at this point Nissan has enough margin to make some deep discounts, winning customers by price.

In Second we have the ZE 40-boosted Renault Zoe, the best position ever achieved by the French model, and that's without selling it in China or North America, now imagine how high it could get if Renault decided to deliver in those two markets... 

Below these two, we have a couple more surprises, with the BMW i3 reaching Third Place and the Tesla Model X narrowly surpassing its older brother Model S, while in the second half of the Top 10, there are three new models to the ranking, with the Toyota Prius Prime already appearing in #7, the VW Passat GTE showing up in #8, confirming the importance of the European ranking this month, while the Volvo XC90 PHEV(!) shows up in #10, the first time in a long time (Since 2014) that a Volvo sits this high in the ranking.

Interestingly, there's no Chinese model in sight...

Pl	WORLD	Jan.	YTD	%	'16Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	3.679	3.679	9	1
2	Renault Zoe	2.606	2.606	7	8
3	BMW i3	2.389	2.389	6	6
4 5 6	Tesla Model X Tesla Model S Chevrolet Volt	2.037 2.009 1.872	2.037 2.009 1.872	5 5 5	7 2 4
7	Toyota Prius Prime	1.366	1.366	3	64
8	Volkswagen Passat GTE	1.340	1.340	3	19
9	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	1.337	1.337	3	5
10	Volvo XC90 T8	1.190	1.190	3	26
	TOTAL	39.380	39.380

Manufacturers -  BMW #1!

BMW started the year on a high note, leading the EV charge with 5.232 units, or 3.6% of all the brand sales last month, followed by a strong Nissan and a close Tesla. 

Chevrolet and Renault benefited from fresh product to climb in the ranking, but the most surprising results show up below them, with Mercedes hitting #7, its highest position ever, mostly thanks to their GLC350e SUV sales climb, while Volvo was #9, with 4% of all sales  coming from the Swedish maker wearing a plug, and SAIC Roewe was #10, with over a thousand PHEV's registered, or some 5% of all sales coming from the automaker in January.  

But, what about BYD??? Well, it was #17, with 705 units...

Pl	WORLD	Jan.	YTD	%	'16Pl
1	BMW	5.232	5.232	12	3
2	Nissan	4.076	4.076	10	4
3	Tesla	4.046	4.046	10	2
4	Chevrolet	3.044	3.044	8	8
5 6 7	Renault Volkswagen Mercedes	2.807 2.580 2.209	2.807 2.580 2.209	7 7 6	10 6 13
8	BAIC	1.574	1.574	4	5
9	Volvo	1.552	1.552	4	19
10	SAIC Roewe	1.437	1.437	4	15

Japan January 2017

Io, behold the 2017 Best Seller in Japan...

Waiting for the Second Coming

The Japanese EV was down 48% YoY in January, with some 1.800 units, placing the EV Share at 0,46%. With numbers below last year volumes, one has to go back five years to see such low numbers, which doesn't come as a surprise, considering how the two local heavy-weights are behaving.

The 30kWh-kick effect has waned and the Nissan Leaf, the main driving force of the market, responsible for 78% of the market, has seen its sales slow down, so unless Nissan throws something new to the table (40kWh version, Gen 2 Leaf...), sales will continue to drop and the upcoming Second Generation Toyota Prius PHEV will have the 2017 Best Seller trophy served on a silver platter.

To worsen things, the emissions scandal is continuing to hurt Mitsubishi and its Outlander PHEV, with registrations down 76%(!) to 190 units last month.

The remaining models in the ranking have comparatively small numbers, with the front two models gobbling 88% of the market, but not all is lost, the Second Generation Prius PHEV is expected to arrive soon and if Toyota managed to win the 2012 Best Seller title with a "light range" (Putting it in mild terms) Prius PHEV, then this decent-range, competitively priced second generation should improve significantly on the result achieved that year (12.300 units), which given the current state of affairs, should be more than enough to beat the current front runners and spike sales of this dormant market.

Pl	Japan	January	2017	%	Pl '16
1	Nissan Leaf	1.431	1.431	78	1
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	190	190	10	2
3	BMW i3 e)	80	80	4	4
4	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia e)	75	75	4	3
5	Mitsubishi I-Miev	31	31	2	8
6 7 8 9 10 11	Tesla Model S e) Mitsubishi Minicab Miev BMW 330e  e) BMW i8 e) Tesla Model X  e) Mit. Minicab Miev Truck	15 11 10 5 5 4	15 11 10 5 5 4	1 1 1 0 0 0	6 5 12 10 N/A 9
	TOTAL	1.857	1.857	100

e) Estimate

Europe January 2017

Ready...Set, Go!

Renault Zoe Starts the year in Full Swing

The European EV market had some 19.000 registrations last month, up 31% Year-on-Year, with the Renault Zoe starting the year in the leadership:

   

 

#1 Renault Zoe – With the ZE40 version finally arriving to selected markets, registrations were up 80% YoY to 2.602 units, jumping to the leadership in January, winning already some 800 units over the second placed BMW i3. Besides the expected good performance at home (1.646 units), the French hatchback had also good results in Norway (240 units), Germany (180) and Austria (104 units).

 

#2 BMW i3 – The German Stormtrooper model continues to profit from the 33 kWh sales boost, this time with 1.818 units being delivered. Besides the usual Norway, with 622 units, other markets where the Bimmer performed well were Germany (388 deliveries, up 160%!), the United Kingdom (210 units) and Austria (94). Interestingly, the fully electric version is outselling the range extended version on a 3 to 1 ratio, when twelve months ago, most sales belonged to the Rex version.

#3 Nissan Leaf – “Hey, remember me?” – The old warrior still has an ace up its sleeve, called “Discounts”. While it may be getting long in the tooth, currently it is the only model offering generous discounts, wooing bargain-seeking buyers, in January it delivered 1.386 units, seeing its sales increase 29% regarding the same month last year. This proves that besides range, price is also a decisive trump card to win buyers.

 

#4 VW Passat GTE – The Volkswagen midsize offering had a better than expected result, with 1.340 units, record results in Sweden (549 units) and Norway (411) absorbed most of registrations, but Germany (157 sales) also saw a positive month. With the right mix of electric range, space, power and price, the Passat GTE is a continuing success among company fleets across Europe.

 

#5 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – The Japanese SUV started the year on the wrong foot, registering only 1.114 units, down 14% YoY, as it failed to deliver in Norway (144 units, worst result in a year) and the United Kingdom (Down a harsh 75%), with the bright spot in Germany (282 units, best performance in 19 months), being unable to balance things.

Volvo XC90 Up, Golf GTE and Audi A3 Down

Below the top five places, the Volvo XC90 PHEV had a surprising 52% jump on sales, to 1.035 units, surging to Sixth Place, while the #8 BMW 225xe Active Tourer (687 units) continued its positive sales trend and two rising SUV’s, the #10 Mercedes GLC350e (629 units, new personal best) and #11 Tesla Model X (586 units, new off-peak record), confirmed once again what we all have been suspecting plug-in SUV’s are a Thing now.

On the losers side, if the VW Golf GTE (406 units, worst performance in three years) performance is excused by the upcoming restyle, its Audi sibling, the A3 e-Tron does not have any excuse to justify the rather disappointing 385 registrations. Or does it? Is Audi about to increase the battery size of its hatchback plug-in? Mmmm…

A (relative) hot item is the Hyundai Ioniq Electric, if it weren’t for availabilty constraints, the Korean would probably already be in the Top 10.    

In the manufacturers ranking, BMW started where it left off last year, in the leadership, with 21% share, followed by Renault (15%) in Second Place and Volkswagen (12%) in Third. A surprise follows in Fourth Place, with Mercedes showing up just below the podium, with 10% share.

Pl	Europe	Jan.	2017	%	'16Pl
1	Renault Zoe	2.602	2.602	14	1
2	BMW i3	1.818	1.818	9	4
3	Nissan Leaf	1.386	1.386	7	3
4 5	Volkswagen Passat GTE Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	1.340 1.114	1.340 1.114	7 6	5 2
6 7	Volvo XC90 T8 Tesla Model S	1.053 819	1.053 819	6 4	9 6
8	BMW 225xe Active Tourer	687	687	4	13
9	Mercedes C350e	672	672	4	8
10	Mercedes GLC350e	629	629	3	26
11 12	Tesla Model X BMW 330e	586 525	586 525	3 3	20 10
13 14	BMW X5 40e Hyundai Ioniq Electric	495 474	495 474	3 2	14 32
15	Kia Soul EV	422	422	2	15
16	Volkswagen Golf GTE	406	406	2	7
17	Audi A3 e-Tron	385	385	2	11
18 19 20	Audi Q7 e-Tron Volvo V60 Plug-In Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Others	376 325 322 2.589	376 325 322 2.589	2 2 2 14	19 17 16
	TOTAL	19.025	19.025	100

Article published also on EV Obsession and CleanTechnica