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Volvo: Big in Finland
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Volvo Land
Despite a harsh climate and small incentives, Finland has become a major plug-in market, thanks to some impressive growth rates, if in 2019 the growth rates are not so outlandish (+25% in February, +22% this year), with the mainstream market falling significantly (-13% YoY), the 2019 PEV Share continues to rise significantly, now at a record 5.7%.
An interesting aspect of the current moment, is the fact that BEVs are gaining share significantly, now having 21% share, a significant improvement over the 14% of 2018.
Looking at the models ranking, it's a Volvo-fest, with three Swede models in the Top 5, with only the evergreen Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (61 units last month, a new record) and the BMW 530e following the pace of the Volvo models. The brand plug-ins are getting more love here, than in its home market…
And the new generation V60 PHEV has just landed, so expect it to rise to a Top 10 position soon.
Another recent landing is the Tesla Model 3, that has started to ramp up deliveries and expects to crack Volvo's rule in this market soon.
Another two strong recent reinforcements in the BEV team is the Hyundai Kona EV, now in #9, and the Audi e-Tron, that landed last month with 14 units, which could indicate a significant demand for the German SUV.
Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Volvo (44%) is a comfortable leader, with BMW (13%) stable in Second and #3 Mitsubishi (10%), keeping a good lead over the #4 Hyundai (6%).
Nordic countries = high PHEV penetration due to suitability of concept. Volvo here is a well regarded brand, reliable, enduring, easily serviceable and well appointed, all traits to be a great purchase. Lets see if Volvo manages to do a Top3 home run in any quarter of 2019.
ReplyDeleteNorway is a Nordic country, too -- and has a much higher BEV penetration...
DeleteHigh PHEV penetration doesn't have anything to do with "suitability". It's simply a function of large incentive being offered for PHEVs, resulting in many people buying them simply to save on the purchase price, rather than actually being interested in EVs. This can flip very quickly when incentives are changed.
The fact that several Nordic countries happen to offer large PHEV incentives, is mostly a coincidence as far as I can tell. (And Volvo specifically is strong obviously because it's a Scandinavian brand...)
It has a lot to do with suitability. The average BEVs have not managed to do all the things that we want in the Nordic countries, like towing, taking the whole family on a ski trip or normal vacations and visiting friends and family even in winter.
DeleteNorway is so high on BEV because of the taxes being close to 100% on ICEs and much higher than BEVs than on PHEVs. When incentives were closer but still way higher for BEVs then PHEVs were about to dominate Norway.
In Finland there are almost no incentives at all so PHEVs dominate. In Sweden BEVs get more incentives than PHEVs but only a few thousand Euro in difference so PHEVs have dominated historically.
So before you write then make sure you know what you are talking about. PHEVs are still more suitable for the Nordic countries. Once there are €35-40k BEV wagons and hatchbacks with towing, room for the whole family and with good fast charging then this will change.
The fact that legacy makers have so far failed to offer decent BEVs in certain segments, does *not* mean PHEVs are fundamentally more suitable...
DeleteIt's certainly true that the shares in Norway are skewed by the extremely strong BEV incentives, resulting in large BEVs like the Model X being actually a relatively affordable choice... However, it doesn't explain why the market is dominated by smallish low-range hatchbacks like Leaf and e-Golf -- which according to your criteria are completely unsuitable for Nordic countries, and thus nobody should be buying them at all, no matter the incentives...
Audi etron at the samesame level as model x. The competition for Tesla heats up.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ipace ahead of both!
DeleteThe e-tron is smaller than the Model X. It's more of a Model Y competitor. The Model X might lose *some* sales, that previously resulted from the Model X simply being the only game in town until recently, thus presumably leading some people to buy a larger vehicle than what they really needed... But there is a much larger market for the e-tron from people who didn't buy a BEV at all before, because there was none in their size class. So while it might very well outsell the Model X in some markets, it mostly won't be at Tesla's expense.
DeleteAlso, January/February figures are not indicative at all, since Tesla does most of their deliveries at the end of the quarter; and also because the e-tron still wasn't doing actual customer deliveries before March -- the figures so far are just demonstration units. In Germany for example the February deliveries are actually lower than the previous months, with dealer deliveries mostly done, and customer deliveries not started yet...