May EV Sales Report II - Spain, Italy, Taiwan

hashtag#Spain
- BEVs are up 35% YoY, to 12k units, and 11% share;
- Adding PHEVs to the tally, the share jumps to 23%;
- BYD (4.5k units) jumps 86% YoY, to 12th overall.

hashtag#Italy
- BEVs surge 86% YoY, to 13k units, and 9% share;
- Adding PHEVs to the tally, the EV share goes up to 15%;
- Overall, the Leapmotor T03 (4k) is 3rd and the BYD Atto 2 is 5th.

hashtag#Taiwan
- BEVs jump 89% YoY, to 11% share;
- Tesla had an amazing month, being 3rd overall on the brands ranking;
- The Model Y was 3rd overall, with 1.8k units.

April EV Sales Report II - Belgium, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Australia, UK

#Belgium
- BEVs reached 14k units, or 36% share;
- Audi Q6 e-tron was the best selling BEV, with 762 units.

hashtag#Argentina
- BEVs experienced exponential growth, going from less than 100 units in April 2026, to over 1.300 units last month;
- This meant that the BEV share jumped to 3%, and if we were to add PHEVs, the share would climb further to over 4%;
- BYD is the main engine growth, owning over 80% of the market;
- BYD Atto 2 (Yuan Up) is the best selling EV, with 694 units, allowing it to be #18 overall.

hashtag#Spain
- BEVs jump 45% YoY, to 10k units, and 9% share;
- If we were to add PHEVs to the tally, then the EV share jumps to 21%, 5% more than the same month last month and 11% more than in April '24;
- Best selling BEV was the Toyota C-HR+, with 831 units.

hashtag#Italy
- BEVs surge (+99% YoY), to 9% share;
- PHEVs also jumped in sales (+75% YoY), to 9% sales, so adding both together, 18% of car sales in Italy had a plug;
- The big highlight is the small Leapmotor T03, that was 3rd overall, with over 4k units.

hashtag#Australia
- BEV sales jump 157% YoY, to 16k units, and a record 16% share;
- The Chinese BYD was 2nd overall in the brands ranking, only behind Toyota;
- BYD Sealion 07 was 8th overall.

hashtag#UK
- BEVs surge 59% YoY, to 39k, or 26% share;
- PHEVs are also in good health, up 46%, to 21k units and 14% share

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%. 

Looking for EVs - From Portugal to Italy

This year, on our post-summer road to Sweden, instead of doing the shortest way there (PT-ES-FR-BE-NL-DE-DK-SE), we decided to make a small (big) detour, and followed the Mediterranean Sea until Italy, then we went through Italy on out way to Budapest, then headed north to Wroclaw, Poland, to visit some friends, and finally went on our way to Sweden.

So i decided to check out how the EV fauna looked like along the way:

Portugal - After leaving Aveiro and passing by one Nissan Leaf and a Renault Zoe in the suburbs, i only saw a new EV in Viseu, in this case, a BMW i3, something that confirmed my assumption that electric cars are still an urban thing;

ICE-ing: Still a plague in many places

Spain - Saw one Renault Zoe in Salamanca and...nothing else until Madrid. Spain's wide open spaces are an EV desert.

In Madrid, EVs returned, with 2 Zoes and 1 BMW i3, all company cars. 

After leaving Spain's capital, we returned to the EV desert, until getting close to Barcelona, not only the landscape looks different, and EVs start to pop up left and right, with the first Teslas starting showing up, one Model S, two Model S, one Model 3...

In Barcelona there are plenty of EVs, with several Nissan e-NV200 vans, Renault Zoes, Tesla Model S, BMW i3, Hyundai Kona EV...

Car-sharing is also relevant, while local taxis and police cars are hybrid Toyota Prius, it's like this city lives in a different universe than the rest of Spain!

Citroen e-Mehari: Maybe the most French of all French EVs...

France - Crossing Southern France highways, both Teslas (2 Model S, 1 Model 3) and PHEVs (2 Outlander PHEV, 1 Mini Countryman PHEV) were possible to be seen, but when we arrived to the Nice and Cannes area, we noticed once again that urban areas continue to be BEV's natural habitat: there we saw 4 Renault Zoe, a couple of Twizy (Twizzies?), one Peugeot iOn, one Kona EV and the e-Mehari, seen above. 

Funny enough, in this area, apart from a Model S, we saw no Luxury EV around, but we did saw some vintage cars, one Lanborghini, a couple of Ferraris...

#poor people drive Teslas

In Monaco, the most common EV was the Renault Twizy, with several units of the tiny two seater fighting space with countless scooters, while other small electric cars were also popular (4 Smart EV, 2 Zoe, 2 BMW i3...), but it seemed as larger the EV is, the less common it becomes (2 VW e-Golf, 1 Peugeot Partner EV van and 1 Tesla Model X).

Funny enough, we say more Maybach (2), than Teslas (the Model X).

As a final note, the parking lots have so much diversity, that deserved a post of their own. But because we don't have time, look at the picture above...

Italy - Not a lot to talk about, as the low EV share is visible by its absence on Italian roads, we saw just one Panamera PHEV (i think it was the PHEV version, we could only see for a few seconds, before disappearing in the horizon...), one VW Passat GTE (with Dutch license place, so it doesn't count), and a Model 3.

The best thing road tripping Italy was actually listening to Virgin Radio, airing some of the best classic rock tracks on Earth, ideal for the kind of travelling we were doing.