King Leaf in hot market
The Irish PEV market is known by its love for the Nissan Leaf, with the BEV model having won six times (2011/12/14/15/16/17) the Best Seller trophy, and with 1 in 2 plug-ins in Ireland being a Leaf, one could even say that the Nissan Hatchback is an honorary Irish citizen.
With the arrival of the new Generation, the trend has continued, with the Japanese hatchback now owning 40% of this year PEV market.
This is currently a hot market, with sales up 107% YoY, and the PEV share up to a record 1.6%, with November alone hitting 5%(!) market share, a new all-time high, even if the base was small, as in all, only 644 units were sold in the Irish automotive market last month.
But it isn't only the Leaf benefitting from the favorable winds, the BMW 530e is the new Second Placed, becoming at the same time the Best Selling PHEV, thanks to 149 deliveries in 2018, up four fold regarding the previous year.
Below the podium, a few worthy mentions, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is now #14, benefitting from the new revised version, while the Volvo S/V90 PHEV twins joined the ranking, in #20.
Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Nissan is frankly ahead of the competition, with 40% share, while BMW (17%) is Second, while Kia (8%) and Hyundai (7%) are running for #3.
how is it possible that a nation of 4 million only sold 600 cars in a month? this seems off by an order of magnitude
ReplyDeleteI was shocked as well but it appears it is correct. It appears that the market peaks every January and to a lesser extent in July and then falls over the remaining months:
Deletehttps://tradingeconomics.com/ireland/car-registrations
Perhaps someone from Ireland could identify the exact reason but a similar (albeit less extreme) pattern is seen in the UK each time the "new" registration number is released so perhaps Ireland is similar.
Yep, same pattern. Only more extreme, as it is a smaller market.
DeleteSo I can give insight into this trend in Ireland. The way out registration plates work on our cars is the first 3 digits indicate the year the car was purchased. 181 means 2018 in the first half of the year, 182 means 2018 in the second half. Because of this, the value of a car we decreases significantly each time a new plate comes out. So for example, a car bought in November will decrease significantly in value on January 1st, and again on July 1st as there is a "new" plate available now. For that reason, most sales occur in January, and to a lesser extent in July. People time leases to only start in January and July. People will buy cars from dealers all through October to December, but take delivery on January 1st in order to get that new plate. That's why in November and December, sales to through the floor.
DeleteSo, for Ireland only the half year numbers of early July for H1 and early Januari for H2 are really interesting. If I understand this correctly?
ReplyDeleteYep!
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