Netherlands May 2017

Tesla Off Season Peak

Known previously for being the PHEV capital of the World, the Dutch EV market had a 180º shift early this year, due to the ending of PHEV incentives, and May was no exception, BEVs outsold PHEVs by 489 units (Up 213% YoY) to 99 (Down 80%), with combined registrations dropping only 8% YoY in May, to 588 units, and the EV share now standing at 1,7%.

Looking at May results, we had a surprising deliveries month from Tesla, with the Model S registering 131 units and the Model X 100 units, placing themselves in the highest places of the monthly ranking. The new BEV-friendly incentives scheme seem to benefit Tesla, as the Model S has seen a three-fold surge regarding the same month last year, while the SUV model delivered its best off peak performance ever.

The Hyundai Ioniq Electric won Third Place, with 88 units, while the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV registered 53 units, being not only its best performance of the year, but also the highest monthly score that a PHEV had in 2017, which could sign a recovery from plug-in hybrids in the second half of the year.

Finally, the 36kWh battery is starting to do wonders to the VW e-Golf, allowing it to reach #5 in May, with 52 deliveries, which is not only a new record for the nameplate, but also the best score any Volkswagen plug-in got this year. Has VW found its new sales scorer?

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Tesla Model S	131
2	Tesla Model X	100
3	Hyundai Ioniq Electric	88
4	Mitsu. Outlander PHEV	53
4	Volkswagen e-Golf	52

Looking at the YTD ranking, the Tesla Model X climbed to Third, while the Nissan Leaf (12 sales, worst result in 9 months) dropped two positions to #5.

Outside the Top 6, two models deserve a mention, the all-electric VW e-Golf surged eight positions to...#8, while the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV jumped to #9, putting pressure on the #7 Volvo XC90 PHEV, the current Plug-in hybrid Best Seller.

In the manufacturers ranking, Tesla is head and shoulders in the lead (33% share, up 1%) and looks it will be there for a while, while in Second Place we have BMW (13%, down 1%), with Nissan and Hyundai(!) now closing the podium, both with 12% share.

Pl	Netherlands	May	YTD	%	'16Pl
1 2	Tesla Model S BMW i3 *	131 46	625 366	21 12	5 14
3	Tesla Model X	100	359	12	15
4	Hyundai Ioniq Electric	88	352	12	23
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13	Nissan Leaf Renault Zoe Volvo XC90 PHEV Volkswagen e-Golf Mitsu. Outlander PHEV  Mercedes GLC350e Volkswagen Passat GTE  Porsche Cayenne Plug-in Mercedes B250e	12 48 1 52 53 12 7 5	324 252 84 70 68 54 44 38 36	11 8 3 2 2 2 1 1 1	13 17 3 19 7 31 1 25 20
14 15 15 17	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Volkswagen e-Up! T. Prius Plug-In (Gen I&II) Audi Q7 e-Tron	4 5 1 1	30 29 29 21	1 1 1 1	16 24 22 6
18 18	BMW 225xe Active Tourer Kia Soul EV	2 1	16 16	1 1	11 27
20	Mercedes C350e		15	1	4
21 22 22	Mercedes E350e Audi A3 e-Tron BMW i8	2 2	14 12 12	0 0 0	10 12 29
24 24 24	Opel Ampera-e Citröen C-Zero BMW X5 40e	1 1	11 11 11	0 0 0	N/A 38 26
24	BMW 740e	1	11	0	18
24 29 29 31 31 33 34 35	BMW 530e BMW 330e Volvo V60 Plug-In Mercedes GLE500e Mercedes S500e Volkswagen Golf GTE Peugeot iOn Kia Optima PHEV	7 1 1 1 2 1	11 10 10 9 8 7 6 3	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	N/A 2 9 30 35 8 34 21
	TOTAL	588	2.974	100

       





































          

Source: RAI Vereniging

* - 42 BEV + 4 REX

Regular Hybrids + Plug-ins Ranking

Pl	Model	May Sales
1	Toyota Yaris Hybrid	487
2	Kia Niro	304
3	Toyota C-HR Hybrid	277
4	Toyota Auris Hybrid	223
5	Tesla Model S	131

If we add regular hybrids to plug-ins, we see the Toyota trio (Yaris and Auris stalwarts, C-HR rebel kid), the Kia Niro in a brilliant Second Place (Imagine how many sales will plug-in Niro's have), with the Tesla Model S in Fifth.

Looking back a year to this ranking, the only models repeating their presence are the Yaris and Auris, with the first repeating the First Place (Then with only 288 units) and its larger brother in Second, then with 181 units, which places in evidence the fact that HEVs have also benefited from the ending of PHEV incentives.

USA May 2017

Toyota Prius Prime center screen: Which looks better, this or the Tesla Model 3?

Toyota Prius Prime  Shines in Hot Market

The US market is pressing the accelerator, last month it registered over 16.000 units, with YoY sales up 44%, leaving the YTD EV Share north of 1%, the US market is headed for a record year, with December surely surpassing the 250.000 units landmark, and 300.000 units still a possibility.

The Toyota Prius Prime is becoming the surprise of the year, having won the Monthly Best Seller trophy for the second time in the row in May, with a record 1.908 units, and that while the model is still in short supply, so once the model is in cruise speed, expect registrations to go north of 3.000/month.

Another measure of the success of the PHEV Prius is these brilliant performances happen while the regular Prius sales are nosediving, having dropped 35% last month to 6.064 units. 

Other models hitting record levels are the Chevrolet Bolt, with 1.566 deliveries, as production slowly ramps up and the car lands in new states, numbers slowly go up, the question is how much higher will they go? 2.000/month? 2.500? More?

The BMW 330e had sufficient stock to deliver a record month, with 475 units (Or 11% of all 3-Series sales), should the German automaker provide enough units, the PHEV version of its bread and butter model could reach some 20% of all 3-Series sales, or some 800 units/month.

Despite some production hiccups (QC...), the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV delivered some 485 units, which is just a sample of the great sales potential this model has, as there is nothing quite like it in a market hungry for big 7-seaters that do not cost small fortunes...I think 1.000 units/month is perfectly within reach, FCA just has to get its QC right and ramp up production accordingly.

In the manufacturers ranking, Tesla (21%) is running neck to neck with Chevrolet (21%) for the leadership, but with June being a last-quarter-of-the-month, expect Tesla to have another deliveries peak, so it will distance itself a little from the GM brand, while it waits for the arrival of the 2017 Event of the Year (Model 3).

 The race for Third place is also close, with Ford (12%) resisting (For how long?) Toyota (11%).

Pl	USA	May	YTD	%
1	Chevrolet Volt	1.817	9.187	13
2	Tesla Model S e)	1.620	8.845	12
3	Toyota Prius Prime	1.908	8.073	11
4	Tesla Model X e)	1.730	6.745	9
5	Chevrolet Bolt	1.566	5.950	8
6	Nissan Leaf	1.392	5.742	8
7	Ford Fusion Energi	1.000	4.350	6
8	Ford C-Max Energi	950	3.473	5
9 10	Fiat 500e BMW i3	665 506	3.333 2.425	5 3
11	Audi A3 e-Tron	294	1.796	3
12	BMW X5 PHEV	433	1.658	2
13 14 15	Volkswagen e-Golf BMW 330e Hyu. Sonata PHEV	381 475 220	1.655 1.373 1.160	2 2 2
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 32 34 35	Ford Focus Electric Por. Cayenne PHEV Kia Soul EVChr. Pacifica PHEV Volvo XC90 PHEV Mercedes S500e Kia Optima PHEV Mercedes C350e Mercedes B250e BMW 740e Mercedes GLE550e BMW i8 BMW 530e Hyundai Ioniq Elec. Smart Fortwo ED Cadillac CT6 PHEV Chevrolet Spark EV Cadillac ELR P. Panamera PHEV Mitsubishi I-Miev	132 174 129 485 146 83 85 7 46 33 33 18 147 751 16 1	948 783 736 702 573 330 312 288 271 251 227 198 160 9454 2212 12 9 6	1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 00 0 0 0
	TOTAL	16.568	71.753	100

 e) Estimate

Source: insideevs.com; goodcarbadcar.com


Tesla Model S & Others

Pl	Model	March Sales
1	Mercedes E-Class	4.068
2	BMW 5-Series	3.677
3	Tesla Model S e)	1.620
4	Audi A6	1.358
5	Mercedes S-Class	1.275

Looking at the E-Segment/full-size vehicles, both the Mercedes E-Class and BMW 5-Series benefit from the volume delivery of the new generation to escape the other models chase, with the Tesla Model S staying in its usual Third Place.

As for the Tesla Model X, its 1.750 units are not enough to reach the Top 5 in its class, not only it has more competition to deal with, but also higher numbers to reach (Usually high end SUVs sell two to three times more than their sedan siblings), proving once again that the Tesla SUV should have been doing much better than its five year old brother...

Norway May 2017

VW e-Golf: "I'm back!"

VW e-Golf #1 in May

The Norwegian plug-in market grew 31% in May to 4.329 units, resuming the growing trend interrupted last month, with YTD numbers now up 39% to 21.086 units and placing the plug-in share at 33%.

Looking at May Top Sellers, the mass delivery of the new 36 kWh VW e-Golf allowed the German nameplate to return to the highest place in the podium, with 457 units, its best result in 13 months, followed by the BMW i3, with 410 units.

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV closes the podium, with 343 units, while the refreshed VW Golf GTE already shows up at the Top 5 Best Sellers, thanks to 272 registrations, its best result of the year.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Volkswagen e-Golf	457
2	BMW i3	410
3	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	343
4	Volkswagen Passat GTE	340
5 5	Volkswagen Golf GTE Nissan Leaf	272 272

Looking at the YTD ranking, the most important changes were the VW Golf GTE climbing to Seventh Place, while the Tesla Model X climbed to Ninth, surpassing the Volvo XC90 PHEV (64 units, worst result of the year) and becoming the Best Selling Luxury plugin SUV.

Interestingly, the Mercedes models have been scoring above average performances, with two of them even hitting record numbers in May, like the C350e (168 units) and the E350e (40), which could signal a more deep commitment from the German OEM regarding plug-ins.

In the second half of the ranking, three rookies deserve a mention, the Second Generation Toyota Prius PHV was up to #24, thanks to 53 units, while the BMW 530e delivered an impressive 61 units and jumped to #25, but the real star was the Opel Ampera-e, registering 230 units in its first volume delivery month, allowing the Opel model to jump to #21, with a waiting list of 5.000-plus units, it has come the time to Opel and General Motors to prove they want the model to succeed, if the car does not reach the Monthly Top 3 in June, i would be really disappointed. Hey, hurry up with Norway, the rest of Europe also wants the Ampera-e delivered!

Now that you think about it, considering June is end-of-quarter month (= Tesla fever), the restyled Golf sibling are now in full deliveries mode, the Renault Zoe must have its QC units hiccups solved this month and the BMW i3 is still selling like hot cakes, it looks like a perfect storm is looming to deliver a record month (5.000 units?) by the end of June...Fingers Crossed!

In the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen (22%) is back at the leadership, but BMW (19%, up 1%) is getting closer, with Mercedes (13% share, up 1%) in Third Place, followed by Nissan (9%).

Pl	Norway	May	YTD	%	'16Pl
1	BMW i3	410	2.349	11	5
2	Nissan Leaf	272	1.818	9	4
3	Volkswagen Passat GTE	340	1.636	8	6
4 5	Volkswagen e-Golf Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	457 343	1.572 1.454	7 7	2 1
6	Mercedes GLC350e	248	1.193	6	21
7 8 9	Volkswagen Golf GTE Renault Zoe Tesla Model X	272 108 138	1.072 1.023 898	5 5 4	3 10 11
10	Volvo XC90 T8	64	841	4	19
11	BMW 225xe Active Tourer	179	739	4	12
12 13 14 15 16	Mercedes B250e Hyundai Ioniq Electric Tesla Model S Audi A3 e-Tron Mercedes C350e	177 152 88 104 168	734 697 611 607 534	3 3 3 3 3	9 20 8 7 15
17	BMW X5 40e	81	484	2	16
18 19	Volvo V60 Plug-In Audi Q7 e-Tron	62 72	473 446	2 2	17 22
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35	Volkswagen e-Up! Opel Ampera-e Kia Soul EV BMW 330e Toyota Prius PHV BMW 530e Mercedes GLE500e Mitsubishi I-Miev Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Peugeot iOn Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Mercedes E350e Citröen C-Zero BMW 740e Kia Optima PHEV Ford Focus Electric Others	55 230 29 37 53 61 8 8 14 14 17 40 16 3 5 4	317 245 228 181 143 108 107 99 95 94 91 80 43 24 23 21 6	2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	14 N/A 13 24 N/A N/A 28 25 30 23 18 N/A 26 38 39 32
	TOTAL	4.329	21.086	100

Source: elbil.no; ofvas.no

Models breakdown by Fuel Source

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Toyota Auris	470
2	Skoda Octavia	469
3	Volkswagen e-Golf	457
4	Toyota RAV4	434
5 6 7 8 9 10	BMW i3 Toyota Yaris Toyota C-HR Volkswagen Golf ICE Mitsu Outlander PHEV Volkswagen Passat GTE	410 400 392 390 343 340

With 33% share, plug-ins are spreading across the general ranking, breaking the general ranking by fuel source, the VW e-Golf reached the podium, behind the Toyota Auris and Skoda Octavia(!), with the BMW i3 in #5 and two PHEVs (Outlander PHEV and Passat GTE) closing the Top 10.

The remaining positions went to four HEV's, all from Toyota, with two ICE models still resisting in the ranking.

But it won't be for long (June?), with the Ampera-e and others knocking on the door, it won't be long until we see a completely electrified Top 10... 

Sweden May 2017

Volkswagen Steps Up

Once again we start the month with Sweden, which registered 1.565 units, a 32% increase over the same period last year, being the best result in months, pulling the EV Share up ever so slightly, to 4.3%, comfortably ahead of last year 3.6%.

In May Best Sellers, we find the usual winner (VW Passat GTE) scoring its best result in three months, with 342 units, but the runner-up came close, with the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV delivering 297 units in May, its best result in 17 months (Hey, now that the UK is lost, Mitsu has to find new markets for its SUV, right?), while the Nissan Leaf has once again beaten the odds and registered 153 units, a 99% increase YoY. For a model that is months away from being replaced, it looks that Nissan is willing to milk it until the end, selling them with large discounts and giving bargain hunters across Sweden a reason to b the best (Only?) discount EV on the market.

Also of notice are the 76 registrations of the VW Golf GTE, its best result this year, signaling the Swedish mass delivery of the restyled Golf plug-ins.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Volkswagen Passat GTE	342
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	297
3	Nissan Leaf	153
4	BMW 330e	78
5	Volkswagen Golf GTE	76

Looking at the YTD models ranking, there weren't many changes at the top, we have to go down to #11 to see some changes, with the VW Golf GTE climbing two positions and now looking for a Top 10 position, now that mass delivery of the restyled units is underway.

The landing of the Second Generation Prius PHEV continues to go smoothly, now registering 37 units in its second selling month, which is the best result for the nameplate in over three years, allowing it to climb an additional two positions to #18.

Interestingly, Mercedes seems to have ignited the "Push Sales" button, as none other than three models have hit record sales in May: The GLC350e delivered 36 units, the C350e, 31 units, and even the older B250e delivered a best ever 16 units. Did the Swedish importer  discovered that the EV Era is upon us?

We had three arrivals last month, first we had the surprising BMW 530e, debuting with an impressive 60 units, while Volvo registered the first units of two new models, bound to become Best Sellers: The S/V90 T8 twins and the XC60 T8 SUV. Will we see them being sold in the hundreds per month soon?

On the EV manufacturers ranking, the leader Volkswagen (31%) is firm at the leadership, followed from a far by Mitsubishi (15%, up 1%) in the runner-up place, while BMW (13%, up 1%) is Third.

Pl	Sweden	May	YTD '17	%	'16Pl
1 2 3	Volkswagen Passat GTE Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Nissan Leaf	342 297 153	1.742 982 656	26 15 10	1 2 6
4	Volvo V60 Plug-In	34	396	6	3
5	Tesla Model S	46	380	6	5
6	BMW 330e	78	336	5	7
7	Renault Zoe	47	262	4	10
8 9 10 11 12	Tesla Model X Volvo XC90 T8 BMW i3 * Volkswagen Golf GTE BMW 225xe Active Tourer	41 40 45 76 41	234 232 202 169 138	4 3 3 3 2	11 4 8 9 12
13 14 15	BMW X5 40e Mercedes GLC350e Audi A3 e-Tron	36 36 19	133 110 80	2 2 1	13 29 14
16	Mercedes C350e	31	75	1	18
17	Kia Optima PHEV	10	72	1	19
18 19 20 21 22 23 23 25 26 27 27 29 30 31 32 33	Toyota Prius PHV BMW 530e Volkswagen e-Up! Volkswagen e-Golf Nissan Evalia / e-NV200 Mercedes E350e Mercedes B250e Kia Soul EV Audi Q7 e-Tron BMW i8 BMW 740e Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Hyundai Ioniq Electric Volvo S/V90 T8 Mercedes GLE500e Volvo XC60 T8	37 60 14 22 7 6 16 1 6 3 7 3 8 3 1	67 60 55 39 38 27 25 24 23 19 19 10 8 3 2 1	1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	23 N/A 16 17 21 34 30 24 20 27 31 26 28 N/A 31 N/A
	TOTAL	1.565	6.619	100

* - 25 Rex + 20 Bev

Plug-Ins Versus Regular Hybrids

Pl	Model	April
1	Volkswagen Passat GTE	342
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	297
3	Kia Niro Hybrid	288
4	Toyota Auris Hybrid	281
5	Toyota C-HR Hybrid	253

Combining April sales of regular hybrids with plug-ins, something unheard happened, as there was no Toyota in the podium, with two PHEVs in the top two positions, followed by the hot Kia Niro.

The best Toyota was only Fourth, with the Auris Hybrid registering 281 units. I think the writing is on the wall for Toyota, be it by direct competition (Hyundai - Kia HEVs), or indirectly (PHEVs), the fact is that their hybrids can no longer follow the pace of the market and the Japanese automaker needs to do something about it.

Either they add a plug to their next generation of hybrids, or they just get in to a cycle of slowing sales, on a slow path to irrelevance.

Source: bilsweden.se