Italy December 2014

 Nissan Leaf got the #1

Slow Recovery Edition

The Italian EV Market ended the year with 1.648 sold year-round, a 14% growth over the previous year, but still behind the 2012 record of 2.348 units (Peak of the Twizy Fever) with the EV Share ending at 0,12%, climbing a shy 0,01% regarding 2013.

The Top 5 places didn´t had last minute changes, with the new Best Seller Nissan Leaf (A first for the japanese car) switching positions with the Renault Twizy regarding last year, with the tiny two seater relegated for Second Place for the first time, while the #3 Smart Fortwo ED had its best ranking position since 2011 (It was also #3 then), and the BMW i3 improved to #4 in its first full year on sale.

The race for best PHEV had a final twist, with the Volvo V60 Plug-In losing the leadership  it had won the month before from the Mitsu Outlander PHEV, with the japanese SUV recovering the leadership and enjoying a hard won PHEV Best Seller, although plug-in hybrids as a whole lost 1% Share (10% vs 11% the previous year). 

By brands, Renault won again, this time with just 31% (It had 47% the previous year), followed by Nissan with 20% and Smart (15%).

Regarding 2015, sales should reach some 2.000-2500 units and the Leaf should continue in the lead.

Pl	Italy	Dec.	YTD	%	'13Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	14	332	20	2
1	Renault Twizy e)	20	322	20	1
3	Smart Fortwo ED	13	251	15	4
4	BMW i3 *	22	229	14	7
5	Renault Zoe	25	155	9	3
6 7	Mitsu. Outlander PHEV Volvo V60 Plug-In	6	67 59	4 4	N/A 5
8 8	Tesla Model S Volkswagen e-Up!	12 16	52 52	3 3	11 N/A
10	Renault Fluence ZE		29	2	8
11	Peugeot iOn		25	2	10
12 13 14 15 16 16 18	Opel Ampera Audi A3 e-Tron Citröen C-Zero Volkswagen e-Golf Mia Electric Fiat 500e Mitsubishi I-Miev	6 1 1	22 17 15 7 6 6 2	1 1 1 0 0 0 0	9 N/A 6 N/A 14 N/A N/A
	TOTAL	136	1.648	100

Source: greenstart.it

* - 4 bev + 18 rex

Canada December 2014

The stillborn 2nd Gen Volt is already sealing sales to the current one

How High will Tesla Go? Edition

With freezing temperatures, the Canadian EV Market should be delivering smaller amounts, but this time it won't be the case, because AWD Teslas are coming to town (In large quantities, i guess), thus compensating the sales fall of other models, namely the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt.

YTD, sales have grown 66% to almost 5.000 units, putting the EV Share at a still low 0,27%, but this number has been steadily growing, from the 0,03% of 2011, up to 0,11% the next year and 0,17% in 2013. With a whole bunch of new, more adapted to Canadian tastes/needs (PHEV SUV), coming soon, expect this market to continue growing at a steady rate, will we see it get to 8.000 units in 2015?

Looking at yearly performances of individual models, the Chevy Volt ended once again in Number One (It is leader since it got to the market in 2011), with the same market share of last year (31%), despite consumers being already waiting for the 2nd Gen Volt, while the Nissan Leaf benefited from solving the production constraints to double sales and recover the #2 it had lost last year to Tesla, which has lost share in Canada this year, probably something it will be reversed in 2015, with the arrival of the AWD Model S and Model X.

Below the Top 3, the Smart Fortwo ED made an impact (#4, with sales growing some 150%) thanks to great sales deals during the year, and the BMW i3 is also making itself noticed, ending the year in #6.

Pl	Canada	Dec.	YTD	%
1	Chevrolet Volt	62	1.521	31
2	Nissan Leaf	64	1.085	22
3	Tesla Model S e)	150	898	18
4	Smart Fortwo ED e)	10	542	11
5	Ford C-Max Energi e)	5	252	5
6 7	BMW i3 e) Ford Fusion Energi e)	20 10	222 163	4 3
8	Mitsubishi I-Miev	7	109	2
9	Toyota Prius Plug-In	3	76	2
10	Cadillac ELR	3	44	1
11	Ford Focus Electric		43	1
12 13 14 15 16	Chevrolet Spark EV Kia Soul EV BMW i8 e) Fisker Karma Porsche 918	5 5	22 21 20 5 4	0 0 0 0 0
	TOTAL	344	5.027	100

e) Estimate

Sources: Greencarreports

Denmark December 2014

The two main characters of the EV Scene in Denmark

Borgen Edition

Just like the TV Series, the local EV market never fails to surprise us, now with a third straight sales record, this time with 349 units, jumping the EV Share to 0,88%, with the YTD numbers shooting for 1.657 units, three times as much as the registrations made last year! 

Looking at the December models ranking, it was a close race to the top between the Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf, both shattering their previous records (115 sales now vs 67 in June for Tesla, 112 vs 84 for the Japanese), ending with a win (The first since June) for the American model by just three units. The VW e-Up! (47 units) ended in Third, while the Renault Zoe made a personal best in this market, with 36 units, ending the month in #4, this month recorded the landing of the Mercedes B-Class ED, with a very satisfying 8 units registered, and an unexpected sales burst from Smart, with 6 ED sales, when in the previous 11 months it had sold...one.

Looking  at yearly numbers, besides the sweet-as-danish-pastries sales surge (There were more EV's sold in Denmark this year than in all previous years combined), the Nissan Leaf was the second model to re-validate a Best Seller title (2009 - Th!nk City; '10 and '11 - Peugeot iOn; '12 - Renault Fluence ZE), but it had to double the results (578 vs 212) in order to resist Tesla's push (112 unis last year vs 460 in '14).

On the other hand, much was expected from German carmakers, but the Best-Seller candidate BMW i3 ended in #5, being surpassed in the last month by the recently-improving Renault Zoe, while the VW duo also had somewhat disappointing performances, if the e-Up! ended in #3, but far from the Top Two, the e-Golf was only #9, with its best registration month being the one of landing (August), with 5 units, and probably all being demonstration models, if the e-Up! outrageously high price keeps the smaller one from flying higher in the ranking, there doesn't seem to be a valuable reason for the compact hatch to be underperforming. 

Final mention for the PHEV Best Seller Title, this time it went for Mitsubishi, but the numbers aren't that significant, with PHEV's representing only 2% share and 22 sales, and unlike the BEV majority, it isn't even growing, in 2012 this segment had 33 units sold...

After my most optimistic forecasts being surpassed by reality, i think 2015 should continue to the fast growth pace of late, probably ending the year with some 2.500 - 3.000 units. 

The models ranking should continue to see a close race between the Top 2 (Leaf and Model S), while the e-Up!, Zoe, i3 and even maybe the B-Class ED, will have a close fight for the last place in the podium.

Pl	Denmark	Dec.	YTD	%	'13Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	112	578	35	1
2	Tesla Model S	115	460	28	2
3	Volkswagen e-Up!	47	219	13	5
4	Renault Zoe	36	145	9	3
5	BMW i3 *	13	138	8	11
6	Nissan e-NV200	4	23	1	N/A
7 8	Renault Twizy Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	6 1	19 12	1 1	6 N/A
9	Volkswagen e-Golf		11	1	N/A
9 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 17	Citröen C-Zero Opel Ampera Mercedes B-Class ED Smart Fortwo ED Renault Kangoo ZE Renault Fluence ZE Citröen Berlingo EV Peugeot Partner EV BMW i8 Peugeot iOn	1 8 6 1	11 9 8 7 6 5 3 1 1 1	1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	N/A 8 N/A 10 9 4 N/A N/A N/A 7
	TOTAL	349	1.657	100

Source: www.bilimp.dk

* - 6 bev + 7 rex

December Preview - France, Canada and Norway

Norway, the (only) place where the e-Golf has some proper lovin' 

France - Zoe Shines, Tesla finally shows on radar

Pl	Model	Dec. Sales
1	Renault Zoe	1.228
2	Renault Kangoo ZE	337
3	Nissan Leaf	129
3	Bolloré Blue Car	100
5	Tesla Model S	86

Canada - Tesla Month?

Pl	Model	Dec. Sales
1	Tesla Model S e)	70
2	Nissan Leaf	64
3	Chevrolet Volt	62

Norway - Despite Model S and e-Golf attacks, the Leaf holds on to #1 .

Pl	Model	Dec. Sales
1	Nissan Leaf	353
2	Tesla Model S	266
3	VW e-Golf	263
4	VW e-Up!	187
5	Kia Soul EV	122

USA December 2014

Star of the Month

The Missing Piece Edition

A record 12.913 plug-ins were sold in the US last month (120k YTD, also a new record), which is the is the best result ever by a single market, and much of this result should be credited to Tesla, thanks to the AWD models, it sold a record 3.500 units, the best result for a single model in the US and the best result anywhere for a BEV, as well as a return to the US monthly leadership, the first since April '13.

Despite Toyota and Ford dragging down the market,  both the Model S , together with the new EV Best Seller in the United States, the Nissan Leaf, were responsible for almost 7.000 of those 13k record.

A mention to the good results by Daimler, the veteran Smart Fortwo ED made a new personal best, with 351 sales (And over a third of Smart US sales), while the Merc B-Class ED (326 units), is slowly winning pace, the question many ask now is: "Will it be a real fighter to the BMW i3?". C'mon Daimler, give us some lovin'!

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Tesla Model S e)	3.500
2	Nissan Leaf	3.102
3	Chevrolet Volt	1.490
4	BMW i3	1.013
5	Ford Fusion Energi	789

In the YTD ranking, there were only two last minute switches at the bottom of the table, the VW e-Golf climbed one position to #20, while the Porsche Cayenne Plug-In escaped the last place on the ranking in the last days, relegating its hyper-sports-car brother 918 to the bottom of the chart.

Speaking of full year performances, the Nissan Leaf recovered the Best Seller title it had won in 2011 (With 9.674 units then, that result would put it in #6 on this years ranking) and established a new worldwide YTD record to beat: 30.200 units. The japanese hatch is more and more the golden standard when it comes to electric cars.

In Second we have the car that is still the most common plug-in in America, the Chevrolet Volt, leader in 2010, 2012 and 2013, this time it was way behind  (Some 12.000 units way behind) the leader, worst still is that it hasn't won a monthly Best Seller title in over a year (Since August '13, to be exact) and it has been losing sales since 2012 (23.461 then, 23.094 in '13, 18.805 now), the sooner the Second Generation Volt  arrives, the better.

The Model S by Tesla ended more or less with the same units of last year and with the same Bronze Medal, things were a bit bumpy this year for Tesla, with a weak summer season, but a strong year-end combined with a dismal second year half from the Prius Plug-In were enough to recover the Third Spot and even close in to the Number Two.

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Nissan (25% Share) continued head and shoulders above the rest, with Ford in Second Place with 18% share and Chevrolet in Third (17%).

For 2015, a lot will depend on the 2nd Gen Volt and Tesla Model X launch timings, both will win many consumers and contribute extensively for the global outcome, regarding the existing models, the Leaf might see its share drop a little (It is a 2010 car, after all), while the Model S will have a strong beginning of the year (Maybe even an early leader), while the BMW i3 could win some Third spots over some months.

For a volume number to forecast in twelve months from now, i would go for 150.000 units.

Pl	USA	Dec.	YTD	%
1	Nissan Leaf	3.102	30.200	25
2	Chevrolet Volt	1.490	18.805	16
3	Tesla Model S e)	3.500	17.300	14
4	Toyota Prius Plug-In	492	13.264	11
5	Ford Fusion Energi	789	11.550	10
6	Ford C-Max Energi	659	8.433	7
7	BMW i3	1.013	6.092	5
8	Smart Fortwo ED	351	2.594	2
9	Ford Focus Electric	53	1.964	2
10	Fiat 500e	115	1.793	1
11	Cadillac ELR	118	1.310	1
12 13 14 15	Toyota RAV4 EV Chevrolet Spark EV Porsche Panamera PHEV Mercedes B-Class ED	37 131 31 326	1.184 1.145 879 774	1 1 1 1
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23	BMW i8 Honda Accord Plug-In Honda Fit EV Kia Soul EV Volkswagen e-Golf Mitsubishi I-Miev Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Porsche 918	158 63 32 110 237 12 55 39	555 449 405 359 357 196 100 96	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
	TOTAL	12.913	119.804	100

Source: insideevs.com

Netherlands December 2014

Could this be the 2015 Best-Seller?

BEV's Revenge Edition

Unlike the December '13, when a landmark was made in the history of plug-ins, the last month of 2014 hasn't brought record numbers to the Dutch EV market, at least in global volume, with 1.563 registrations, it was only the fourth best month of the year, but even so, the EV Share ended on the upside, with 3,94%, far away from the 5,55% of last year, but a brilliant improvement if we compare it with the 2012 result of 1,10%.

Although not memorable volume-wise, this month will be remembered for a great month for pure electric cars in PHEV-land, for the first time since 2011 a BEV was the best seller in December!

The honors went to the Tesla Model S, with 352 units, but there were more surprises, while the Outlander PHEV was #2 (January '14 was the last time the Mitsu wasn't leader), with 239 units, the #3 was the Smart Fortwo ED, with 194 units! To put things in perspective, until November, it only had sold 29 units this year AND
if we add the 2012 and 2013 numbers to those 29 units, the number is...161 sales.

In #4 we have the new Dutch darling, the VW Golf GTE, with 192 units, while in #5 we have another tremendous surprise, with the Nissan e-NV200 selling a mammoth 176 units, until November, the NV200 (ICE AND electric) had sold...37 units. Yes, i double checked these numbers

But these were not the only pure electrics to fare well, the Renault Zoe made a Year-best result (83 units), while the Kia Soul EV recorded a new personal best, it's only 9 units, but remember, Kia is still making its first steps in EV-land...

A few deserved mentions, the Model S was by far the best E-segment car in the global ranking and it even outsold every D-Segment (#2 Volvo V60, with 181 units) and SUV (#2 Outlander, 256 units) model too;

The Nissan e-NV200 was the best selling LCV and/or the #2 MPV, only behind the cheaper Nissan Note relative (184 units).

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Tesla Model S	352
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	239
3	Smart Fortwo ED	194
4	Volkswagen Golf GTE	192
5	Nissan e-NV200	176

Thanks to this unexpected month the YTD ranking had plenty of shifts, in the Top 5 positions there was had a surprise last minute switch between the Nissan Leaf (Up to #4) and the BMW i3 (Down to #5), but further down there was a lot going on, the Renault Zoe rose to #7, the Smart Fortwo ED jumped to #8 (A seven position jump) and the Nissan e-NV200 climbed to #9 (Up from #19!), while the Porsche Panamera Plug-in was down three positions to #10.

With the year now ended, let's see some bright spots regarding the General Ranking:  

- The Mitsu Outlander PHEV was the best selling SUV, but it didn't managed to break its 2013 sales record of 8.343 units;

- The Volvo V60 Plug-In was the Second best selling D-Segment vehicle;

- Tesla only lost the E-Segment best seller title to the BMW 5-Series (191 units), a car that starts at lower price brackets;

Looking at the Manufacturers ranking, Mitsubishi won again the Title, this time by several miles (Last year 36%, this time 51%!), followed once more by Volvo (21%, vs 26% last year), and in Third we have Tesla, with 10% Share. 

As a curiosity, last year the #3 was the Prius Plug-In (Now only #11), in #4 there was the Opel Ampera (Best Seller in 2012, but only #16 this year...), and in #6 the now-discontinued Chevrolet Volt made itself noticed.

Pl	Netherlands	Dec.	YTD	%	'13Pl
1 2	Mitsu Outlander PHEV Volvo V60 Plug-In	239 124	7.465 3.235	50 21	1 2
3	Tesla Model S	352	1.469	10	5
4	Nissan Leaf	91	562	4	9
5 6	BMW i3 * Volkswagen Golf GTE	31 192	548 403	4 3	10 N/A
7	Renault Zoe	83	253	2	8
8 9 10	Smart Fortwo ED Nissan e-NV200 Porsche Panamera Plug-In	194 176 1	223 190 181	1 1 1	13 N/A 14
11	Toyota Prius Plug-In		87	1	3
12	Audi A3 e-Tron	29	80	1	N/A
13	Volkswagen e-Up	10	78	1	7
14	BMW i8	8	56	0	N/A
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 21 23 23 23 26 27 27	Renault Twizy Opel Ampera Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Kia Soul EV Volkswagen e-Golf Mitsubishi I-Miev Chevrolet Volt Citröen C-Zero Porsche 918 Ford Focus Electric Peugeot iOn Volkswagen XL1 McLaren P1 Renault Fluence ZE	5 11 9 5 3	46 41 27 24 22 7 6 6 3 3 3 2 1 1	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	12 4 N/A N/A N/A 15 6 12 N/A N/A 18 N/A N/A 19
	TOTAL	1.563	15.261	100

* - 21 Rex + 10 Bev

Source: RAI.nl

Ireland December 2014

Another easy win for the Leaf

Back to the Right Path Edition

After a dismal year of 2013, with the EV Share going down to just 0.08%, the Irish EV market is back to the growth path, registering a record 258 units and 0.27% Share.

For the fourth time in a row the Nissan Leaf is crowned the best selling plug-in, with 192 units sold, way ahead of the competition, while the runner-up position went to the surprising Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (25 units) and the #3 was for the hot-hatch BMW i3 (16 units).

PHEV's grew significantly, as now they have 12% share, when a year ago they had...Zero, Nada, Nil.

Looking into the future, it looks as if Nissan will continue to rule in the Emerald Island, although at some point the competition will start to run closer to it.

Ireland	2014	%
Nissan Leaf	192	74
Mitsu. Outlander PHEV	25	10
BMW i3	16	6
Renault Zoe	10	4
Tesla Model S	4	2
Renault Twizy VW e-Golf Audi A3 e-Tron BMW i8 Renault Kangoo ZE	4 2 2 2 1	2 1 1 1 0
TOTAL	258	100

Source: beepbeep.ie