Canada December 2016 & January 2017 Preview

Volt #1

As the weather cools, so should sales in Canada's EV market. Instead, registrations continue to far outpace previous years, the 999 units registered in December represent an increase of 36% YoY, pulling the EV Share to a record 0.57%, with the EV Market ending the year at some 9.000 10.000 10.500 10.841 units, 63% above the result in 2015.

Looking at individual performances, after the Tesla Model S stealing the 2015 Best Seller Title, the local sweetheart Chevrolet Volt returned in full strength, winning the 2016 Best Seller award with a record 3.469 units, shattering the previous best of 2.036 units, set in 2015 by the Model S.

The GM nameplate won its fifth Best Seller award in six years, which says a lot on the love that Canadians have by the Chevrolet plug-in hybrid...Will it be the same in 2017?  

It looks like it, with the Volt starting January with 256 units a new record for any model in January, so the good news  continue to flow onto Canada's favorite PEV.

The other significant model with available numbers is the Nissan Leaf, with not so positive news, the 65 units  sold in January, seven units less than the same month last year. 

Looking at the remaining models, the main news were the good results of the Tesla models, with the X outselling the for the fourth consecutive month (206 vs 146), it looks that unlike their southern neighbors, Canadians are prefer the Minivan-slash-Sports-SUV-slash-missile.

A mention to the first five units of the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV, no doubt demonstration units, a model i think will be really successful in this market.

After letting escape the 2015 manufacturers title to Tesla, Chevrolet (32% share) is the 2016 trophy bearer, followed by Tesla (24%) and Nissan (13%). 

With the Chevy Bolt kicking in soon, the American brand won't have any problems to validate the manufacturers title this year, they might as well think about how the crowning party will be...

Looking at the BEV / PHEV breakdown, plug-in hybrids became again the majority (52%) in 2016, up from the 33% of the previous year.

Pl	Canada	Dec.	YTD	%
1	Chevrolet Volt	272	3.469	32
2	Tesla Model S	146	1.466	14
3	Nissan Leaf	75	1.375	13
4	Tesla Model X	206	1.032	10
5 6 7 8 9	Kia Soul EV  Volvo XC90 T8 P. Cayenne Plug-In Audi A3 e-Tron BMW i3	55 52 32 32 24	708 534 337 332 320	7 5 3 3 3
10 11	Ford C-Max Ener.  e) BMW X5 40e	27 24	288 271	3 3
12	BMW i8	9	161	1
13	Ford Fusion Ener. e)	13	132	1
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 24 26 27 28	Ford Focus Electric Mitsubishi I-Miev Chevrolet Spark EV BMW 330e Hyun. Sonata PHEV P. Panamera Plug-In Mercedes S550e Cadillac ELR Smart Fortwo ED Mercedes GLE550e BMW 740e Chr. Pacifica PHEV Renault Twizy Chevrolet Bolt Porsche 918	8 2 1 9 2 1 2 1 1 5	123 86 50 40 32 25 14 13 9 6 5 5 4 3 1	1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
	TOTAL	999	10.841	100