Belgium February 2018

VW e-Golf Shines

Another positive month in February, with Belgians registering 1.058 passenger Plug-ins, up 41% YoY, placing the PEV Share at 2.4%.

Too bad then that PHEV's continue to be the Trend du Jour, with 80% of all PEV registrations being Plug-in hybrids, with this type of technology owning 8 out of the 10 Best Selling models.

But the recent PHEV incentives changes have produced some changes, once known for being the favorite home of big luxury SUVs (The BMW X5 PHEV and Volvo XC90 PHEV were regular features in the podium, just to name two of them), now sales are somewhat more distributed, with two midsize SUVs (XC60 & GLC350e), one compact car (e-Golf), a compact Crossover (Countryman) and a large sports sedan (Panamera) making the Top 5.

The VW e-Golf deserves a special mention, because thanks to a fleet deal in January, it started the year in the lead, the last time a BEV started in the pole position was in 2014...A sign for better days? Let's hope so.

On the other hand, Tesla was off to a slow start here, with only the Model S showing up on the Top 20, in #14.

In the manufacturers ranking, last year winner BMW is steady in the leadership, with 25% share, while Mercedes (16%) and Volvo (15%) are running for Silver.

Canada January 2018 & February Preview

Outlander PHEV lands with a bang

In a market now north of the 1% threshold (1.1%), the big news early this year in Canada was the thundering arrival of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, with 174 units in its first full sales month, placing itself immediately behind the Chevrolet Best Sellers, the Volt (226 units) and Bolt (187). Will the Japanese SUV disrupt this market and end Chevy's domination? Well, in a SUV-loving territory, like this one...But more on this below.

Other important performances occurred in the Top 10, with the irregular Chrysler Pacifica PHEV having a positive start of the year, in Fourth, with 103 deliveries, while the Honda Clarity PHEV is replicating in Canada the good performance it is having South of the border, with 76 registrations in its first full sales month. 

Looking into February preliminary results, we have the Chevrolets in cruise speed (Volt - 305 units, Bolt - 180), while the Outlander PHEV continues to impress, clocking 230 registrations and stealing February's Silver Medal from the Bolt's hands, all while the Prius Prime and VW e-Golf have beaten their sales records, with the first registering 135 units, and the second 180(!). Finally the new Leaf landed with an impressive 179 units.

With the Outlander PHEV and Clarity PHEV brilliant landings, the new Leaf coming in,  and extended availability of the Prius Prime and e-Golf, it seems this market is going to beat all expectations this year.

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Chevrolet (31%) is stable at the Throne, keeping Mitsubishi (13%) miles behind.

In Third Place we have Chrysler, with 8% share, doing its best to save its Bronze Medal from Volkswagen (7%), Tesla (6%), Hyundai (Also 6%) and Honda (ditto).

Source: Green Car Reports

Austria February 2018

"Was that a rocket that passed by us? No, it was the e-Golf. Wooow..."

VW e-Golf rocks the market

Austrian plug-in sales are up 46% this year, to over 1.200 new Plug-ins, placing the PEV Share at record heights (1.9%). 

The good thing about this market is that it is a BEV-heavy market, with all-electric cars representing 70% of sales. When governments play the incentives cards right, good things like these (Large share and growth) happen.

Looking at the models ranking, the news of the year is the thundering leap of the VW e-Golf into the leadership, with two consecutive record performances (115 units in January and 191 in February), the German hatchback passed right by through the Renault Zoe and BMW i3, to sit in the Best Seller Throne, with space to spare.

Another BEV with a good start is the Hyundai Ioniq Electric, #4 with 122 units, it seems the increased production is starting to create some benefits for the Korean hatchback.

The same can't be said about the Tesla nameplates, with the Model S only Seventh, and the Model X in #17.

Will we see a recovery for the American brand in March?

In the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen is ahead with 12% share, followed by BMW (8%), and Renault (7%).

Just outside the podium, we have Hyundai, with 6%, waiting for more units allocation of their Ioniq twins (BEV & PHEV), in order to jump into the podium.

But then again, all podium bearers have that same problem...

Switzerland February 2018

Ampera-e Big in Switzerland (but BMW i3 is #1)

The Swiss PEV market was up 77% last month, by registering 675 units, placing the 2018 registrations at 1.207 units, up 43% YoY, with the PEV Share climbing to a record 3.7%.

In an off-peak month for Tesla, it was up for the BMW i3 to pull the market up, with the Bimmer scoring 232 registrations, stealing the leadership from the Opel Ampera-e hands (!?!), with the model German-American model registering only 24 units last month.

The Renault Zoe is now Third, thanks to 63 deliveries in February, while the Tesla models are strangely in low places, with the Model S in Ninth and the Model X in #20. Will we see a Tesla March Madness month in a few weeks?

In the manufacturers ranking, BMW (33%) profited from the i3 exceptional performance, to jump into the leadership, leaving Volkswagen (10%), Renault (9%), Opel (9%) and Volvo (8%) running for the remaining podium positions.

Source: Auto Suisse

China February 2018

The imposing new BYD Tang, coming to Chinese streets in a few months

The NEV Games – Stage 2: BYD’s Revenge

February is traditionally the slowest selling month in China, but with sales around 34,000 units, there’s not much to complain about, numbers were up 88% YoY, making this by far the best February ever.

The PEV share dropped slightly, to 1.3%, a smidge below the previous month (1.4%) and a step below the 2.1% of 2017, but on the bright side, from now on, sales are expected to pick up significantly as the year advances, with the 2018 PEV share expected to end at around 3%.

Last month, the Chinese OEMs represented roughly 40% of all PEVs registered globally, an impressive number, especially considering that February is the slowest month in the Chinese PEV market.

With exports still being symbolic, the domestic market is more than enough to absorb the current production, helped by the fact that it is a highly protected market, as foreign brands only had 3% of PEV registrations last month. Of this (very small) cake, 2% belonged to BMW, while the other manufacturers, Tesla included, divided the remaining 1%.

In February, the main news were the surprisingly low sales of the BAIC EC-Series, with only 4,120 registrations, dragging down with it the mothership BAIC, allowing its nemesis BYD to pay back the defeat it had in the previous month, all while dethroning the Beijing brand from the 2018 Best Selling Brand position.

Here’s February Top 5 Best Selling models individual performance:

 

#1 – BYD Song PHEV: Build Your Dreams (BYD) current star product had 4,481 registrations in February, underlining a good start of the year. If the 2018 Best Selling PHEV title seems to be destined to stay with it, one questions if BYD’s “Model Y” can also reach the sales level of the BAIC EC-Series. Maybe, maybe not, consistency seems to be BYD’s forte, so if the EC-Series goes into a series of uninspired performances...Who knows?

 

#2 – BAIC EC-Series: After winning the Best-Selling status for six months in a row, the EC-Series had a disappointing February, having registered just 4,120 units last month. Sure, 4000 units should be enough to give it a podium place on the Global February Best Selling PEVs, but when you reach almost 16,000 registrations in a month, 4000 seems like you’re not trying hard enough…It’s a bit like Lionel Messi, when you get people used to hat-tricks & other magic numbers during the 90 minutes of the game, if you just offer the assistance for the victory goal, people think you are being lazy…Anyway, the little EV continues to be disruptive in the Chinese market, leading it by a large distance over the Second Placed BYD Song PHEV.

 

#3 – BYD Qin PHEV: The most common plug-in in China had another good performance in February, with 3,009 units, being BYD’s “Model 3” sixth consecutive “3 to 4 thousand units/month” result (Talk about consistency!). This is another of BYD’s hard-working Oompa-Loompa, sure, they do not wow the world with 15,000 units/month peak performances, like the EC-Series does, but on the other hand, they get s*** things done. In a way, it’s a bit like Ronaldo, while Messi amazes the world with his magic and wins the popular vote, at the end of the day, the Real Madrid striker takes home the awards, just like BYD did in the last 3 years.

#4 – JAC iEV7S/E: JAC is one of the EV pioneers in China, selling plug-ins since 2010, and now with its iEV7S/E Crossover, it’s back at the game, registering 2,831 units last month. With a competitive price of USD 26,000 before incentives, this is a vehicle targeted at trendy urbanites that for some reason can’t reach a BYD Song or Roewe’s eRX5, getting in return a good-looking compact vehicle (Kia Soul-sized), with just enough zoom (114 hp) to avoid making it feel underpowered.

 

#5 – Chery eQ: Chery was one of the Chinese brands to bet early in plug-ins, having won the models title three times in a row (2011, ’12, ’13), with its tiny QQ3 EV, now the automaker is trying to regain relevance with the eQ, the spiritual (and material) successor to the QQ3, having registered 2,753 units in February, allowing it to collect a Top 5 position last month. A vehicle marketed to city dwellers, for USD 24,000 before incentives, you get a funky city EV, with the 22kWh battery providing just enough range (200 kms / 125 miles NEDC), to cover the needs of the urban jungle.

 

Outside the Top 5, and even in a slow selling month, there are a couple of models with positive performances, like the SAIC Wuling E100, that after a dismal January (only 80 deliveries), registered 601 units, allowing it to return to the Top 20. Better yet did its direct competitor Zhi Dou D2 EV, registering 893 units, a far cry from the meager 130 deliveries of January, pulling it to #12 in the yearly ranking.

On a not so positive tone, the BYD Tang only delivered 204 units, its worst performance in all three years in the market, the most likely reason for this sudden drop is the fact that a new one is announced for this year.

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, after losing in January by some 1600 units to BAIC, BYD had its revenge in February, beating the c*** out of Beijing Auto almost doubling sales of its direct competitor in that month (8,200 units vs 4,400), allowing it to recover the yearly leadership, with 24% share, 4 percent ahead of BAIC (20%).

But we are only on the second game of a 12-round final, so buckle up and bring the popcorn, because it will be an entertaining race until December between these two.

In Third Place we also have a close race, with the Shanghai-based Roewe (11%) being closely followed by JAC (10%), so there’s more to look at, in the Chinese NEV (New Energy Vehicles, aka PEV) games than just BYD vs BAIC.

Pl	China	February	2018	%
1	BAIC EC-Series	4120	11990	19
2	BYD Song PHEV	4418	7099	11
3	JAC iEV7 S/E	2831	6423	10
4	BYD Qin PHEV	3009	6348	10
5	Chery eQ	2753	4149	7
6	SAIC Roewe eRX5 PHEV	1187	3404	5
7	SAIC Roewe i6 PHEV	1071	3159	5
8	JMC E200	1594	3094	5
9	BYD Tang	204	1293	2
10	Changan Benni EV	578	1258	2
11	Geely Emgrand EV	581	1047	2
12	Zhidou D2 EV	893	1023	2
13	GAC Trumpchi GE3	442	978	2
14	Hawtai EV160	335	942	1
15	SAIC Roewe eRX5 BEV	374	856	1
16	BAIC EX-Series		767	1
17	JMC E100	504	682	1
18	SAIC Wuling E100	601	681	1
19	BMW X1 PHEV e)	320	670	1
20	Zotye E200	107	608	1
	Others	8043	7319
	TOTAL	33965	63784