Czech Republic June 2015

"This market is too small for both of us, Leaf!"

BMW i3 has got company

The Czech Republic EV Market is going at record pace, with 64 units (And i believe a few more Outlanders and e-Golfs, but i only have data from single models), with the EV Share at 0,06% numbers that will easily outpace the 2012 records (98 registrations for the whole year, 0,05% Share).

If in 2014 it looked that only BMW had interest in this market, holding 96% share, this year Nissan decided to return (It was the Best Seller in 2013) and with only half the year passed, it has already outsold its '13 full year sales number (23 vs 16), so despite the strong competition from BMW, the Nissan Leaf is settling quite comfortably here, contributing for the growth of EV market far more efficiently than Opel did last year (Only two units in H1), and even upsetting the i3 leadership from time to time.

As for BMW, the little i3 sold 28 units, beating its 2014 First Half performance significantly, but the real surprise was the larger BMW i8, with 13 units, it is already outselling the 10 units sold in 2014!

Czech Rep.	H1  '15	H1 '14
BMW i3	28	18
Nissan Leaf	23	N/A
BMW i8	13	N/A
TOTAL	64	20

Czech Republic December 2014

"It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it"

BMW's Turf (Or is it?...)

The Czech Republic EV Market recovered in 2014, with 71 units, but it is still behind 2012, that with 98 registrations is still the Best Selling year.

In 2014 it looked that only BMW had some interest in this market, holding 96% of the market, but there are two unknown variables in this market, VW and especially Mitsubishi, as the numbers available don't brake data by fuel source, one wonders how big are these two in the market...

Looking at what we've got, the little i3 sold 58 units, beating the record held by the Peugeot iOn, which sold 52 units back in 2012, but the real surprise was the larger BMW i8, selling 10 units over the year, five of them in December, making it the monthly Best-Seller!

Czech Rep.	2014	2013
BMW i3	58	3
BMW i8	10	N/A
Opel Ampera	3	2
TOTAL	71	37

Czech Republic October 2014

"It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it"

Slow Recovery

The Czech Republic hasn't been on the radar on EVS, maybe because there wasn't much to say, after a decent year of 2012, with 98 registrations, the numbers fell sharply the next year to just 37 units, with only the Nissan Leaf (16 units) selling in significant numbers.

In 2014 it looked that Nissan, like other brands, like Opel or the PSA Group, stopped believing in the potential of this market, leaving the market only to BMW.

Ten months have passed into 2014 and only the german carmaker has significant sales to present, with the little i3 selling 49 units, only 3 behind the record 52 units sold by the Peugeot iOn in 2012, number that should be reached next month, now that sales are going at a faster pace, last month there were nine i3 deliveries a new record, so it looks that we will be talking about some 75 units by the end of the year, it's not much but it represents two times the sales of 2013.

Czech Rep.	YTD 2014	2013
BMW i3	49	3
BMW i8	4	N/A
Opel Ampera	2	2
TOTAL	55	37

Markets Roundup December 2013 (Special Edition)

Ford C-Max Energi: Miss

I. A Year Ago - Hits and Misses

In the end of last January, i have made some sales predictions regarding 2013, let's see how they worked out:

USA

* 15.000 sales for the C-Max Energi - Not even half (7.154), miss;

* 6.000 sales for the Fusion Energi - 6.090 units sold, right on target;

* 12.000 sales for Tesla - 17.650 sales, Tesla consistently outpaced predictions, including their owns;

* 90-110.000 sales for the US EV market - 96.034 units, comfortably within the prediction boundaries.

Japan

* 6.000 units for the Outlander PHEV - Some 10.000 sold this year, with production problems. Not  even Mitsu was this expecting such a sales success;

* 29.000 sales for the Japanese EV Market - Around 30.000 units, hit;

France

* 2.000-4.000 sales for the Renault Zoe - 5.511 sales. Looking back, i was surprisingly skeptical of the Zoe, i mean, the french supermini wasn't a sales success, but it also wasn't as bad as i predicted; 

*14-16.000 sales for the French EV Market - 14.905 sales, right in the middle of the prediction boundaries.

Germany

* 10.000 sales for the German EV Market - 6.714 sales, well behind expectations. Miss.

Netherlands

* 2.200 sales for the Prius Plug-In - 2.364 units, saved by the last quarter sales. Hit;

* 3.500 sales for the Opel Ampera - With 2.208 units sold, even the sales from the last quarter weren't enough to reach near the prediction. Big miss; 

* 9.000 units sold in the Dutch EV market - 23.170 sales, 9.311 of them in December. Who would of thought?

Norway

7.000-8.500 sales in Norway - 8.669 sales, slightly above the best expectations. At the time i was speaking of 6% EV Share like something amazing, as it turns out, the EV Share in Norway is now at 6,10%...

Global EV Sales

200.000 units - Still with data coming in, the number already exceeds 208.000, so 2013 was a good year for plug-ins.


II. Engines of Growth

* By EV Share 

Two of them are easy to discover, after all, plug-in performance were profusely documented in Norway (6,10% in '13 vs 3,12 in '12) and the Netherlands (5,55% in '13 vs 1,10% in '12). But the third market is something of a surprise, with the EV Share in Iceland jumping from 0,21% in 2012 to 0,94% in '13! With all the hydro-thermal energy they have and the small distances associated to an island, EV sales in Iceland should continue to grow exponentially and maybe become something like a Second Norway...

* By Volume

EV Share is important, but even more fundamental is the volume increase, and in this case we had the USA as the main contributor, with more 41.084 units sold regarding 2012, the Netherlands, with more 17.587 sales, and...China, even with a miserable 0,08% EV Share, what matters here is volume and 0,08% of 22 million cars is still a lot of cars, and plug-ins sold more 4.851 regarding last year.


III. 2013 vs 2012

Let's compare #1's of this year with the ones of 2012:

Volt - USA (In '12 - Volt); Canada (Volt)

Leaf - Norway (In '12 - Leaf); UK (Leaf); Spain (Twizy); Denmark (Fluence ZE); Australia (I-Miev); Estonia (I-Miev); Iceland (I-Miev)

Outlander PHEV - Japan (In '12 - Prius Plug-In); Netherlands (Opel Ampera);

Zoe - France (In '12 - Kangoo ZE); Switzerland (Twizy); Austria (Twizy)

V60 Plug-In - Belgium (In '12 - Twizy); Sweden (Prius Plug-In); Finland (Prius Plug-In)

Twizy - Italy (In '12 - Twizy); Portugal (Twizy)

Fortwo ED - Germany (In '12 - Twizy)

Fluence ZE - Hong Kong (In '12 - Leaf)

QQ3 EV - China (In '12 - QQ3 EV)

Examining this, we can see North America as a Volt stronghold, the Leaf stealing trophies from the I-Miev, the Outlander and V60 doing the same at the Prius, the Zoe cannibalizing #1's in Central Europe and the Twizy resisting extinction in the south of the continent.


IV. Other Markets

For some reason (Low volumes, rare data, etc) some markets have been left-out, here is a chance to know some of them:

Israel: Renault Fluence ZE - 436 units; Nissan Leaf (24).

Czech Republic: Nissan Leaf - 16 units; Peugeot iOn (8); Citröen C-Zero (6); BMW i3 (3); Opel Ampera (2); Fisker Karma (1); Porsche Panamera Plug-In (1).

Poland: Nissan Leaf - 15 units; Opel Ampera (5); Tesla Model S (4); BMW i3 (4); Renault Zoe (2); Renault Twizy (2); Smart Fortwo ED (1).

Romania: Renault Fluence ZE - 28 units; Citröen C-Zero (2); Nissan Leaf (1); Toyota Prius Plug-In (1); Tesla Model S (1).

Bulgaria: Renault Twizy - 14 units.

Russia: Mitsubishi I-Miev - 70 units.

Morocco: Renault Twizy - 7 units.

Mexico: Nissan Leaf - 73 units.


V. Predictions for the G7

USA - 110-130.000 units/year, Leaf #1;

Japan - 36-39.000 units/year, Outlander #1;

France - 15-18.000 units/year, Zoe #1;

Netherlands - 15-19.000 units/year, Outlander #1;

Germany - 10.000 units/year, German Car #1;

China - 23.000-28.000 units/year, Qin #1.

Markets Roundup October 2013

One of the Surprises of the Year, this Volvo is climbing the sales charts

Volvo V60 Plug-In is Gaining Traction

In a month without no clear winners (Prius Plug-In in the USA, Fortwo ED in Germany, Volt in Canada, V60 Plug-In in the Netherlands, Leaf in Japan, Twizy in Italy, Zoe in Austria and France, etc), it's worth mentioning the performance of the swedish electric wagon, besides having with 99% certainty two '13 YTD Best Selling Model (Netherlands and Sweden) for their trophy room, with a third (Finland) also on the way, this month it also secured the Best Selling PHEV title in Germany(!) and Italy, besides other encouraging results elsewhere.

A good sign for the swedish carmaker and a hint that it should bet more on this segment, with increased production capacity, new markets and new models (XC60 Anyone?).

Nissan Leaf World Car 

Looking by continents, we can see the Leaf dominating the Euro and Asian market, while it's still fighting for #1 in the Americas, meaning that the three factory strategy is starting to pay off. 









Trends in the G7 

In the US market the top 3 cars (Prius Plug-In, Volt and Leaf) were separated by just 93 units, while in the YTD chart, the Volt leads but has the Leaf right behind, with less than 700 cars separating them.

Looking at EV shares, Norway and Netherlands EV Shares continue to grow like there's no tomorrow, (4,63% and 2,29%, respectively), while others are witnessing more moderate rises, like the in the USA, now at 0,59%.

Germany registered the best sales month of the year (832 units), and with the german brands launching in the coming months their first entries in this segment, one can only expect that sales will go sky high...

Like in the Netherlands, where a new record was set this month with 1.911 units, making it the best selling market in Europe.

BMW has high hopes for it's small i3

Other Markets

Mentioning countries with small footprints in the electric mobility thing, the Czech Republic has the Nissan Leaf in #1 with 11 units, the Peugeot iOn is second (6 units), while the other french derivative, the Citröen C-Zero is third with 4 units sold.

Poland is another country where the Leaf leads (8 units), with the Opel Ampera second (3 units) and the Renault's Zoe and Twizy tied in third with 2 sales.  

Questions for November

1 - Where will be beaten the next sales records?

2 - Who will be the US #1?

3 - Where will the Outlander PHEV be #1?

4 - Will the Zoe recover any more #1's?

5 - Where will the BMW i3 reach #1?

6 - Will the V60 Plug-In collect any other #1?

Markets Roundup Full Year 2012

Fisker Karma in Monaco

With most of 2012 data in, it's time for a roundup on some EV markets:

- The three countries with highest EV share are Norway (No surprises here) with 3,09%, followed by Estonia (Thanks to Mitsubishi) at 2,35% and finally in third there's the Netherlands with 0,98%;

- The Renault Twizy was #1 in eight countries, hitting a sweet spot in Central and Southern Europe;

- Renault sold some 600 units of the Fluence ZE in Israel, included in the Better Place battery swapping project and at 0,37% share it was not a bad start, but the question is if in 2013 they will resist the black hole that is becoming the Better Place deal;

- Nissan has sold 89 units of the Nissan Leaf in Hong Kong, meaning that Nissan sold more Leaf's there than in the whole of China;

- Where else in the world other than Monaco would the Fisker Karma be a best seller? That's right, the Cadillac Escalade of the  Plug-In market was the second best selling electric vehicle in Monaco, just behind the Renault Twizy. With this in mind, i'm assuming that Tesla will be the best seller this year;

- As proof that the EV market is a fast changing market, Finland had three different leaders in the last three years, starting with the Think City in 2010, followed in '11 by the Citröen C-Zero and the Nissan Leaf last year;

- The I-Miev family has a thing for finding new markets for electric cars and losing them for others in the following years, for example the Mitsubishi I-Miev started the EV market in 2009 in it's home market, being the best selling electric model that year and in 2010, before losing the crown to the Leaf in 2011.  The same thing happened in Germany (#1 in 2010 and 2011, #3 in 2012), Spain (#1 in 2011, #9 in 2012), Switzerland (#1 in 2010 and 2011, #4 in 2012), Monaco (#1 in 2011, #6 in 2012) and Ireland (#1 in 2010, #4 in 2011 and 2012). In 2012 the I-Miev family started to sell cars in new markets like  the Czech Republic (78 units), Iceland (9), Poland (13) and Colombia (28). It remains to be seen in 2013 how many of these will still crown a I-Miev member as best seller...

Czech Republic Full Year 2012

Speaking of unexpected places, sometimes EV sales come from where you least expect like is the case of Estonia or Israel.

EV sales in the Czech Republic isn't that unexpected, but it isn't also one of the first countries that comes to mind when you think of electric cars, but it has a small one.

With only 98 units sold this year, the EV phenomenon is still in its infancy, but it could grow significantly in the next years, especially if local manufacturer Skoda joins the Plug-In offensive that their VW bosses are planning in the next two to three years. For now, the I-Miev family dominates thanks to their Peugeot and Citröen sisters, respectably #1 and #2 in the ranking.

Czech Rep.	YTD	%
Peugeot iOn	52	53
Citröen C-Zero	26	27
Opel Ampera	9	9
Skoda Octavia EV	10	10
Fisker Karma	1	1
TOTAL	98	100

Source: sda-cia.cz