Italy March 2020

Tesla shines in Corona-hit market

With Italy severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the automotive market crashed in March, falling 86% YoY, but amazingly, the local PEV market kept growing, with sales in March up 22% YoY, to 1.322 units, a step below the tripling sales of previous months, but considering the doom and gloom around it, one could hardly expect better.

With plugin sales growing and the overall market crashing, last month plugin share jumped to a record 4,6% (3,3% BEV), while the 2020 share climbed to 2,4%, more than doubling last year result. 

It has been a long time coming, but it seems Italy is finally warming up to plugins, and with FIAT launching a new 500e in its home market, we will surely see even more growth on top of this.

But back at March, looking at the best selling models, the Renault Zoe is the leader, with the hot Tesla Model 3 jumping to #2 last month, thanks to 358 units, its best result in 9 months, but nevertheless, the sports sedan ended far from the Zoe leadership.

Other noticeable performances last month were the Smart Fortwo EV climbing to #4, thanks to 128 registration, being last month runner-up model, while the Ford Kuga PHEV is experiencing a surprising success in this market, jumping to #12 in March, thanks to 61 units last month.

One quirk of this market is the popularity of city cars, not only we have the Smart Fortwo EV in #4, but it is tied in that position with the VW e-Up!, the highest standing for Volkswagen smaller EV among larger markets, while on the category above, besides the expected Renault Zoe / Peugeot 208 EV success, we also see the Opel Corsa EV and Mini Cooper EV at the bottom of the table, prepearing themselves to climb positions in the next following months, while in #20, we also have the DS 3 EV.  

Peugeot (13%) is leading the makers ranking, with Renault and Volkswagen, both with 10% share, following suit, while outside the podium, we have Tesla (9%), being chased by Smart and Mini, both with 8%.