Sweden February 2019

Kia is Big in Sweden

Waiting for the Model 3 

Good news continue coming from Sweden, with the local plug-in market up 52% YoY, to 2.665 registrations, placing the PEV share at 12%. 

Meanwhile, the mainstream market continues sliding, dropping 15% last month.

If we look only at tradicional ICE (diesel and gasoline) sales, the diesel demise is visible, with the black-labeled fuel now with little over a third of new sales (37%), almost half of what it had in 2012.

Right now buyers are running away from fossil-fueled vehicles (HEVs included) and going in a stampede-like movement into fully electric ones, but because BEVs are still model/production constrained, it seems people prefer to wait in line for a BEV, than to buy/lease another ICE-based vehicle.

This is starting to become a trend, once a market is regularly at over 10%, the mainstream market starts to suffer and decline, as people move away from regular petrol/diesel vehicles.

Looking at last month Best Sellers, while the Tesla Model 3 doesn't get delivered in volume (apparently there have been some homologation issues), the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is leading the charge, for the first time since 2016, with 496 registrations in February alone, doubling the number of registrations it had a year ago, while also allowing it to reach #7 in the mainstream market.

The Kia Niro PHEV, maintained the 2nd spot, with 324 units, while another Kia, the Optima PHEV, closed the podium, with 273 deliveries.

But the real surprise came in #4, with the new generation Volvo V60 PHEV registering 271 units, in its first full deliveries month, which is a new record for the nameplate. I guess we have found another candidate for the medals, but for now it is only #7, 122 units behind the #3 Renault Zoe.

Another fresh face making an impact is the Kia Niro EV, delivering another 163 units last month, being the third Kia in the Top 10...

Fellow Korean Hyundai is not so fortunate, with the #15 Kona EV stuck with a slow deliveries ramp up (51 units last month), and still unable to catch its Ioniq Electric older sibling, now in #12.

Outside the Top 20, we should mention the first 25 registrations of the Audi e-Tron, a solid entry in this market, which could presume it as this year's Luxury SUV King. Will the Tesla Model X be removed from the category throne?  

In the manufacturers ranking, Kia is in the lead, with 25% share (+1%), while Volvo (18%) is Second, closely followed by Mitsubishi (17%).

Far from the podium, Renault (9%) is in the 4th position. 

Hybrids and Plugins

Pl	Model	Sales
1	M. Outlander PHEV	496
2	Toyota Yaris	391
3	Kia Niro PHEV	324
4	Kia Optima PHEV	273
5	Volvo V60 PHEV	271

Besides winning the Best Selling PEV title in February, the Outlander PHEV also managed to outsell the Best Selling HEV (Toyota Yaris Hybrid), but truly amazing is what happened behid the Japanese hatchback: The remaining Top 5 was entirely made of PHEVs!

So, basically PHEVs are replacing HEVs in the Swedish auto market, as the preferred choice for people that want to go green, but are not yet ready for a fully electric model.

Also a telling tale of the changes currently happening, the Kia Niro HEV was the slowest selling (158 registrations) version of the Korean Crossover variants (BEV, PHEV, HEV).

Long story short, Toyota is getting screwed having its lunch eaten by others. Way to go, Toyota!