World Top 20 December 2017 (Updated)

BAIC EC-Series is the 2017 Big Daddy

Thanks to record performances in the USA, Europe and especially China, the global PEV market had its best month ever in December, surpassing for the 170.000 units delivered, representing a 67% growth YoY, with 2017 ending with over 1.223.000 units, 58% above 2016, placing the global plug-in share at over 1%.

Thanks to the influence of the BEV-friendly China, BEVs were up 2% share in 2017, with the BEV/PHEV breakdown ending at 66% BEV vs 34% PHEV, the highest for all-electrics since 2011.

In the models ranking, the big news were the shooting for stardom of the BAIC EC-Series, with the little EV breaking successive monthly records in the second half of the year, and basically crashing on the Tesla Model S party....Adding a new Yearly record (78.000 units) to boot.

The Bronze medalist was also a surprise, with the Toyota Prius PHEV coming out of nowhere to win the last place of the podium, with 51.000 units, repeating the 2013 Bronze medal, at the time achieved with a 23.000 units score.

Looking only at December, one can say it was all about Tesla and the Chinese, with the first eight positions going all for them (BAIC EC-Series; Tesla Model S; Tesla Model X; Chery eQ; Wuling E100; JMC E200; BYD Song PHEV; BYD Qin PHEV). 

A freak event or should Legacy OEMs start to freak out over this? Mmmm...

But back at the full year positions, last year winner Nissan Leaf was only Fourth this year, as the transition for the new generation took longer than previously thought.

Two models had reasons to be happy with their 2017 performances, the Tesla Model X almost doubled deliveries, and ended in Fifth Place, losing some of the Ugly Duckling fame it had on it. The Zhi dou D2 also had a bang up year, shooting for a Top 10 position last year.

Two new additions to the ranking showed up in the 2017 Top 10, with the BYD Song PHEV becoming the Rookie of the Year, by ending its first year in Ninth, while the Chevrolet Bolt, effectively a 2018 model, ended the year in Tenth, after a looong production ramp up.

As this is a Full Year Special Edition, we dig a little deeper, into the Top 20, where we can see that seven out of ten models come from China, but also three significant drops regarding 2016, with the Chevy Volt stumbling 8 positions to #12, while the Mitsu Outlander PHEV did even worse, falling 9 places to #14. Are competitors making wrinkles show on these models?

The BYD Qin PHEV, down from #9 to #17 has a diferent story to tell, as the model spent a big part of the year waiting for the revised version, that only started to charge ahead in the second half of the year. 

Pl	WORLD	Dec.	YTD	%	'16Pl
1	BAIC EC-Series	13.169	78.079	6	42
2	Tesla Model S	7.790	54.715	4	2
3	Toyota Prius Prime / PHV	4.353	50.830	4	64
4 5 6	Nissan Leaf * Tesla Model X Zhi Dou D2	2.904 5.736 1.187	47.195 46.535 42.342	4 4 3	1 7 32
7 8	Renault Zoe BMW i3	3.346 3.327	31.932 31.410	3 3	8 6
9	BYD Song PHEV	4.643	30,920	3	N/A
10	Chevrolet Bolt **	3.658	27.982	2	93
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Chery eQ Chevrolet Volt JAC iEV7S/E Mitsub. Outlander PHEV BYD e5 Geely Emgrand EV BYD Qin PHEV BMW 330e Roewe eRX5 PHEV Hyundai Ioniq Electric	5.650 2.275 1.122 2.386 1.146 2.764 4.546 2.131 2.687 1.638	27.444 26.291 25.745 25.571 23.632 23.324 20.791 19.815 19.510 17.241	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1	15 4 53 5 17 13 9 24 N/A 45
	TOTAL	173.020	1.224.103

* - Includes Leaf & Leaf II
** - Includes Opel Ampera-e

Manufacturers -  BYD wins title, but watch out for BAIC

Looking at December Best Selling manufacturers, there were five(!) manufacturers with five digit performances, something unthinkable 12 months ago, when basically only BYD and Tesla did those kind of stunts.

But looking at the full year numbers, no surprise at the top, with BYD winning the Manufacturers title for the third time in a row, with a record 109.000 units, but this time it had two other OEMs beating the 100k barrier, with BAIC just edging out Tesla and getting away with Silver in the last minute.

Beijing Auto's race to the top is nothing short of amazing, if in 2015 the maker was only #12, the following year it jumped to Fifth, and now Second...Will it go for Gold in 2018?

As for the Bavarian automaker BMW, the benefits from a strong (And extensive) lineup continue to be felt, with the German maker being by far the most successful Legacy OEM in the ranking.

Below these "Big Four", there is a big empty space separating them from the Best Selling Brand of the "B League", with Chevrolet having the most significant performance, jumping its deliveries to 54.000 units in 2017, allowing it to climb to #5 an important step above the #8 achieved in 2016, which was itself a positive step above from the #11 of 2015.

Nissan was only Sixth, suffering from the Sunset-mode of the Leaf I, while Toyota jumped to Seventh in 2017, its best standing since 2014.

Roewe also had reasons to smile, reaching a best ever Eighth Spot, same with Zhi Dou, in #10.

Looking to the places below the #10, there are an additional six Chinese brands, making half of the Top 20 having Chinese passport, with Changan performance being the most impressive, jumping from #28 to #15, While Hyundai also joined the Top 20 for the first time, in #20.

As for Mitsubishi, sales were down 17% YoY to 27.000 units, its worst performance since 2013, with the #18 spot being the worst position for the Japanese manufacturer ever since it started in 2009...Carlos Ghosn has a big job ahead at Mitsubishi.  

Pl	WORLD	Dec.	YTD	%	'16Pl
1	BYD	15.886	109.485	9	1
2	BAIC	16.932	103.199	8	5
3	Tesla	14.582	103.122	8	2
4	BMW	10.765	97.057	8	3
5 6 7	Chevrolet Nissan Toyota	5.935 3.203 4.353	54.308 51.962 50.883	4 4 4	8 4 30
8	Roewe	6.281	44.661	4	15
9	Volkswagen	4.393	43.115	4	6
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Zhi Dou Renault Zotye Chery JMC Changan Mercedes JAC Mitsubishi Geely Hyundai	1.271 4.407 6.461 10.214 4.731 6.365 2.173 1.861 2.440 2.764 2.027	42.484 40.598 36.862 36.444 29.951 29.822 29.800 28.659 26.634 24.866 23.456	3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2	14 10 7 12 19 28 13 16 9 17 24

Segment Leaders

Now duly updated for 2017, sorry for the inconvenience, but the long hours mad me Forget this feature

A / City Car - In a segment completely owned by Chinese OEMs, the BAIC EC-Series is the new, undisputed King, with the Zhi Dou D2 and Chery eQ serving as Lieutenants.

B / Subcompact - This time the Renault Zoe outsold the BMW i3, beating it for the first time since 2013. Third Place went for the rising Chevrolet Bolt, which could win this class in 2018, if its slooow production ramp up is to continue throughout this year;

C / Compact - A big reshuffle regarding last year, with the Toyota Prius Prime/PHV winning the class trophy, a first for Toyota, followed by last year winner, the Nissan Leaf, with the Chevrolet Volt closing the class podium;

D / Midsize - The BMW 330e won the 2017 award, ending a long reign of the Ford Fusion Energi, this time the American model was only Third, with 10.213 units, behind the Second Placed VW Passat GTE (13.614). The Bimmer leadership should be of short span, as 2018 should crown another leader...;

E+F / Fullsize - Tesla Model S, hands down leader since 2012. Second Place went for the successful BMW 530e (10.074 units), with the Third Place going for the hot Porsche Panamera PHEV (4.457 units). Mercedes, last year holder of Silver and Bronze, had their representatives dropping to Fourth (E350e) and Sixth (S500e). Is Mercedes losing the Luxury race?

Sports car / Coupé / Convertible - BMW i8 (2.336 units), won once again, without real competition, the Second Placed was the recently arrived BAIC Arcfox Lite (Well, if one can consider it a Coupé...), with 472 units, while Third was the Citröen e-Mehari, with only 337 units;

SUV / Crossover - The hottest class on the Automotive World has crowned the class poster-child, with the Tesla Model X winning its first Gold Medal, after last year's Bronze, with two more compact Crossovers following it: The VW Tiguan-like BYD Song PHEV (#2) and the Renault Captur-like JAC iEV7S/E (#3), both won their first class medals;

MPV / Minivan - A class that has been somewhat overshadowed by the Crossover craze, the podium players were the same as in 2016, but with diferente standings: The BMW 225xe Active Tourer was the segment Best Seller (12.416 units), winning its first class award, followed by last year winner BYD e6 (10.077), leaving the Ford C-Max Energy (9.219) with the Third Place;

LCV / Van - Nissan won this class again, with the e-NV200/Evalia gathering 4.763 units overcoming the 4.318 of the Renault Kangoo ZE, with the StreetScooter repeating last year Third Place, but this time biting the first two heels (4.092 units). Expect an interesting race here in 2018;

Pick up Truck - The Chinese Dongfeng Rich EV (608 units) repeated last year title being the only model to reach three digit numbers. This is a golden opportunity that no one so far (Chinese included) has tried to take. For how long?