Portugal February 2017

Rise up, Renault! 

EV Sales continue on the rise in Portugal, with sales in 2017 up 33% YoY to 339 units, and the Plug-in Share finally reaching the 1% threshold, an important step, especially considering that growth is coming from BEV's (Up 154% to 206 units), more than compensating the current PHEV drop (-24% YoY, to 133 units).

At this pace, we expect 2017 to end at some 2.500-3.000 registrations by year end, with the EV Share ending firmly north of the 1% barrier.

After years dragging their feet when it comes to EV's, Renault, possibly Portugal's most popular car brand, has finally risen to the occasion and by the time of the Zoe ZE 40 launch, decided to actively market its electric hatchback, promoting it in mass media and forcing encouraging their dealerships to sell the car, with immediate results, for the first time ever, the Renault Zoe is head and shoulders in front of the pack, with almost a third (31%) of the market, with the February performance (72 units) representing its best result ever.

The Second Place is in the hands wheels of its Alliance cousin, with the Nissan Leaf selling in enough volume (22 units last month) to be the runner-up, a significant feat for ageing nameplate, with Nissan now harnessing the fruits for spreading the word over the years, now making the Leaf synonymous with EV in Portugal.

Another popular plug-in here is the BMW i3, Third this year with 27 units, with the interesting factoid that all but one unit are 100% electric, possibly due to the 33 kWh effect...The longer range also helps the German hatchback to spread outside Lisbon and Porto metro areas, big time magnets for the BMW model.

Elsewhere, the best selling PHEV's are only Fourth, with the Outlander PHEV and BMW 225xe Active Tourer tied in #4, with 20 units, with the BMW model promising to be a strong contender for the category Best Seller title.

Finally, the VW Passat GTE registered a personal best of 11 registrations last month, pulling it to #6. Now imagine how high this model could be if the local importer actually supported their plugins and this model in particular...

In the manufacturers ranking, Renault is in the lead for the first time in years, with 31% share, followed by last year winner BMW (19%) and runner-up Nissan (17%).

Pl	Portugal	Feb.	2017	%	Pl '16
1 2	Renault Zoe Nissan Leaf	72 22	105 57	31 17	6 1
3	BMW i3 *	12	27	8	4
4	Mitsu. Outlander PHEV	6	20	6	3
4 6 7 7 9 10 11 11 13 13 15 16 17 17 17 17 21 21	BMW 225xe Active Tourer Volkswagen Passat GTE Volvo V60 Plug-In Mercedes C350e Mercedes GLC350e Kia Soul EV Volkswagen e-Up! BMW X5 40e BMW 330e BMW 740e Mercedes E350e Volkswagen Golf GTE Mercedes B250e Volkswagen e-Golf BMW i8 Mercedes S500e Audi Q7 e-Tron Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	6 11 6 5 7 1 3 2 1 2 3 2 1 1 1	20 18 16 16 12 8 6 6 5 5 4 3 2 2 2 2 1 1	6 5 5 5 4 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0	13 10 5 2 22 11 23 10 7 23 N/A 8 19 18 21 25 31 20
21	Volvo XC90 T8		1	0	13
	TOTAL	164	175	100

Source: ACAP

* - 12 BEV + 0 REX

Plug-Ins Versus Regular Hybrids

Pl	Model	Feb. 2017
1	Toyota C-HR Hybrid	114
2	Renault Zoe	72
3	Toyota Auris Hybrid	61
4	Mercedes C300h	37
5	Toyota Yaris Hybrid	31

  
If we combine February regular hybrid sales with plug-ins, there is a small revolution at the top, with the usual two (Auris & Yaris) removed from the top two positions by their C-HR sibling, a runaway success everywhere, followed by the all-electric Renault Zoe, the only plug-in in this Top 5.