26% PEV Share in January, mainstream market down 48%!!!
Sales grew moderately in 2019 in January, but because the mainstream market is falling off a cliff (-48% YoY), the PEV shares is jumping through the roof, with January hitting an amazing 26% PEV share, a significant departure from the 19% of last year.
Will the PEV share hit 35% this year?
Considering the behavior of the other advanced EV market, Norway, is similar behavior, with moderate PEV growth and a sales drop in the mainstream auto market, we are starting to see a trend, that can be replicated in other markets, as once markets hit some 10% market share, plugin sales slow down to 20-30% growth rates, while at the same time, the mainstream market starts to shrink, as regular buyers come to realize that fossil fueled vehicles are becoming dinosaurs.
Looking at this year Best Sellers, the Nissan Leaf started ahead of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, but the real surprise was the Hyundai Kona EV (I have been writing this phrase a lot, in the last few weeks...), with the Korean jumping to the 3rd spot, thanks to 19 units, its best result to date.
Two other small, long(ish) range BEVs are also climbing, with the Renault Zoe starting the year in #7, it was #13 last year, while the BMW i3 is profiting from the larger battery to finally appear on this ranking radar, in #8.
Also interesting are both Range Rover models showing up in the Top 20, considering this is a SUV-loving market, this could be an interesting market for the British brand.
In the brands ranking, Nissan (23%) started in the lead, while last year winner Mitsubishi (22%) is a close Second, and the 3rd placed Volvo (13%) has the #4 Hyundai at a comfortable distance.
Ever increasing PEV share is always good but I am wondering if the current trend of the mainstream market shrinking in Europe wouldn't be a temporary thing related with vehicle fleet WLTP homologation and more importantly, purchasing behavior pulled forward. With less and less conventional models available (6d-Temp/6d-RDE), I am wondering what Outlander could be bought from Mitsubishi if not the PHEV, for example?
ReplyDeleteNow, specific to Iceland really, just the first 6 positions are worth mentioning (159 vehicles in total), because all the remaining others are residual numbers, 2 or 3 cars aren't any show stoppers, would it be a news headline 10 Ford Focus 1.0 turbo Petrol sales in Ireland? And more alarming is, the fact that Iceland society might be heading to another economic crisis...
Also in Iceland look to the subsidies / incentives, the gouverment simple pay to drive an BEV / PHEV.
ReplyDeleteAn E-Golf is after incentives fuel savings 10K cheaper than the diesel version...in other markets 15K expensiver