Finland June 2016

Running Hot

A total of 682 EV's were sold until the end of June in Finland, already beating last year record of 661 units sold during the whole month of 2015, doubling sales regarding the same period last year, with the EV Share still north of 1%, at 1.04%.

Looking at the models ranking, the hottest seller is the Volvo XC90 T8, with 171 units (New all-time Yearly record), 32 of them last month, thus winning another Monthly Best Seller trophy.

In the remaining positions in the ranking, the BMW X5 40e climbed to Second Place, followed by the VW Passat GTE, while the Tesla Model S rose to Fifth, thanks to the usual last quarter peak (12 units).

But the real surprise this month was the BMW 330e, registering 19 units (New pb), allowing it to be the Second Best Selling model in June and jump to #8 in the YTD ranking.

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Volvo is First, with 26% share (Up 1%), followed by the increasingly menacing BMW (16%, up 2%), with Volkswagen (13%) in Third but with Mercedes only five units behind (91 vs 86), its Bronze medal could be in danger next month.

Pl	Finland	June	YTD '16	%	Pl '15
1 2 3	Volvo XC90 T8 BMW X5 40e Volkswagen Passat GTE	32 9 9	171 60 57	25 9 8	12 18 N/A
4	Nissan Leaf	1	54	8	5
5 6	Tesla Model S Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	12 5	49 44	7 6	1 2
7	Mercedes C350e	6	41	6	7
8 9	BMW 330e Mercedes GLE500e	19 3	35 29	5 4	N/A N/A
9 11	Volkswagen Golf GTE Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	3 2	29 28	4 4	4 3
12 13 14 15 15 17 17 17 20 20 20 23	Audi A3 e-Tron BMW 225xe Active Tourer Mercedes S500e Volvo V60 Plug-In Mercedes GLC350e Volkswagen e-Golf BMW i8 Audi Q7 e-Tron Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia BMW i3 Toyota Prius Plug-In Volkswagen e-Up!	1 4 2 2 1 4 1	21 20 10 6 6 4 4 4 3 3 3 1	3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0	6 N/A 10 8 N/A 9 17 N/A 14 N/A 11 15
	TOTAL	115	682	100

Source: trafi.fi

Portugal June 2016

"Oldtimer? Who? Me?!? Finished what?!?! I'll show you who's old and finished..."
 - This seems to be the Fado of the Nissan Leaf in Portugal 

Leaf Returns to #1 

EV Sales continue growing, with 167 registrations last month, a 27% increase YoY, with the EV Share down slightly to 0.74%.

With four leadership changes this year and three different models passing by the leadership, this is turning out to be one of the most entertaining rankings to look at, with June being no exception, due to a sales slump from the Outlander PHEV (14 units, worst result of the year), the all-electric Nissan Leaf went back to #1, with the Mercedes C350e also taking the chance to overcome the Japanese SUV, thanks to a record 41 deliveries in June, displacing the Mitsubishi to #3, its worst placement in over a year. 

Besides the Merc, there were two additional models breaking their own personal records, the newcomer BMW 330e had its first real sales month, delivering 10 units and shooting 16 positions to #10, while the Kia Soul EV registered four units, its best result ever since it landed in 2014, does this mean that the local Kia importer is finally serious about distributing the model?

In the manufacturers ranking, there's also a close race, with Nissan (19%) still in the leadership, but Mercedes (18%, up 1%) is breathing in the Japanese brand neck, having just surpassed Mitsubishi (16%, down 2%) in the race for Second Place.

Pl	Portugal	June	2016	%	Pl '15
1 2	Nissan Leaf Mercedes C350e	33 41	157 151	18 17	2 5
3	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	14	142	16	1
4	BMW i3 *	19	96	11	3
5 6 7 8 9 10 10 12 13 14 14 14 17 17 19 20 21 21 21 24	Volvo V60 Plug-In Renault Zoe Volkswagen Golf GTE Volvo XC90 T8 Renault Twizy BMW 330e Tesla Model S Renault Kangoo ZE BMW 225xe Active Tourer Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Kia Soul EV  Volkswagen Passat GTE BMW i8 Mercedes B250e Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Volkswagen e-Golf Mercedes S500e Toyota Prius Plug-In BMW X5 40e Volkswagen e-Up!	13 17 4 2 10 4 5 4 2 1	79 77 23 17 15 13 11 11 10 9 9 9 7 7 6 5 4 4 4 3	9 9 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0	9 4 11 28 6 N/A 16 12 N/A 10 16 N/A 20 15 18 N/A 20 8 25 14
24 24 27 27	Peugeot iOn Audi A3 e-Tron Citröen Berlingo EV Smart Fortwo ED		3 3 1 1	0 0 0 0	6 18 30 22
	TOTAL	167	877	100

Source: ACAP

* - 12 BEV + 7 REX

Plug-Ins Versus Regular Hybrids

Pl	Model	June 2016
1	Toyota Auris Hybrid	126
2	Toyota Yaris Hybrid	81
3	Mercedes C350e	41
4	Mercedes C300h	39
5	Nissan Leaf	33

  
If we combine regular hybrid sales with plug-ins, the customary two (Auris & Yaris) are in front, followed by the plug-in hybrid version of the Mercedes C-Class (C350e), two units ahead of the regular diesel-hybrid version of the same car (C300h), an important sign that buyers are preferring plug-ins in this diesel-addicted market. 

Estonia June 2016

Leaf Repeats Leadership in Roller Coaster Market

Thanks to the 21 units registered in June (Best result in 18 months) the total of 50 EV's sold in the first half of 2016, represent only five units less than in the whole of 2015, but nevertheless it is still down 56% over the first half of 2014.

This EV market has an uncharacteristic Boom-Bust behavior, possible to see in the EV Share over the years:

2011 - 0.3%

2012 - 2.4% 

2013 - 0.7%

2014 - 1.7%

2015 - 0.3%
2016 - 0.5%

In the midst of these abnormal results (Incentives related?), the Nissan Leaf is headed for the fourth consecutive Best Seller award, selling 30 units through June, with an amazing 60% share.

Second is the Tesla Model S, that with 10 units until now, it is experiencing its best year ever in Estonia, having delivered as much units this year as in the whole of 2015. 

In a global European market heading for PHEV's, it is nice to see Estonia going in the opposite direction, with plug-in hybrids now accounting for only 4% of the market, when last year they had 25%.

Pl	Estonia	June	YTD	%	'15Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	13	30	60	1
2	Tesla Model S	5	10	20	2
3 4 4 6 6 6	Kia Soul EV Renault Zoe Mitsubishi I-Miev Volkswagen e-Up! BMW X5 40e BMW 330e	1 2	3 2 2 1 1 1	6 4 4 2 2 2	9 9 N/A 9 12 N/A
	TOTAL	21	50	100

Source: mnt.ee

New Zealand June 2016 (Updated)

Best. Name Plate. Ever.

Outlander PHEV #1 In Reshuffled Ranking

With 176 plug-ins sold in the first half of 2016, the growth registered in NZ has slowed down significantly, up only 10%, with the EV Share slightly up to 0.25% vs 0.22% in 2015.

Looking at the models ranking, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is again the undisputed leader (For the third year in a row), with sales up 36% YoY.

Below the japanese SUV, six of the ten models are all new to New Zealand, with the surviving ones being the BMW i3 (#2 with 32 units), Audi A3 e-Tron (#6 with 9 units, down 60% YoY) and Porsche Cayenne PHEV (#7, with 4 units).

The most notable absence is the Nissan Leaf, NZ's Best Selling EV in 2012 and the second most common plug-in in this market. With Nissan giving up on this market at this point, only time will tell if it was a good business decision... 

Among this year rookies,  the best performers are the Volvo XC90 T8 (#3 with 11 units) and the BMW 225xe Act. Tourer (#5 with 10 units).

This market reshuffle increased the PHEV dominion, with plug-in hybrids now owning 73% of the market, up 6% regarding the 67% share of 2015.

Pl	New Zealand	June	YTD '16	%	'15Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	22	91	52	1
2 3 3 5 6 7 8	BMW i3 Volvo XC90 T8 Tesla Model S BMW 225xe Active Tourer Audi A3 e-Tron Porsche Cayenne Plug-In BMW X5 40e	14 2 1 4 1 1	32 11 11 10 9 4 3	18 6 6 6 5 2 2	2 N/A 5 N/A 4 6 N/A
9 9 11	Renault Kangoo ZE Renault Zoe BMW 330e		2 2 1	1 1 1	N/A N/A N/A
TOTAL		45	176	100

Source: mia.org.nz

Plug-Ins Versus Regular Hybrids

Pl	Model	2016 YTD
1	Toyota Camry Hybrid	195
2	Toyota Prius C	146
3	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	91
4	Toyota Corolla Hybrid	53
5	Lexus NX300h / RX450h	53

  
If we combine regular hybrid sales with plug-ins, only the Outlander PHEV shows decent numbers against Toyota's products, but even so, far from the leader Camry Hybrid. 

Germany June 2016

  

BEV's to the power?

Sales were down just 4% YoY to 1.764 units, being the best result in the last three months, probably being the first signs of the recent incentives push, nevertheless, the EV Share still dropped 0.02% to 0.62%.

Looking at June models ranking, for the first time in years, we have a 100% BEV Top 4 ranking, if the Renault Zoe performance (#2, with 225 units) is no surprise, as it has been above the 200 units/month since February, and the 226 units of this month Best Seller, the Tesla Model S, were expected (Last month of the quarter...), the 101 units of the Renault Twizy was a big surprise (It did only 44 sales a year ago), being its best result in two years(!), while the 97 deliveries of the VW e-Golf were also unexpected, being its best performance in a year and the first time since last August that is was the best selling plug-in Volkswagen.

A sign of things to come? Will BEV's be the most benefited from the incentives scheme?

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Tesla Model S	226
2	Renault Zoe	225
3	Renault Twizy	101
4	Volkswagen e-Golf	97
5	Audi A3 e-Tron	96

As always, the YTD German EV ranking had plenty of changes to talk about:

- The Tesla Model S jumped three positions to #4, thanks to a third best ever performance (226 units);

- The Volvo XC90 T8 climbed one position to #9, it is by far the best selling Luxury SUV with plug-in capabilities, leaving its German competitors more than 200 units behind;

- The Renault Twizy, thanks to the aforementioned three-digit performance, rose two positions to #13 and 299 units, its best half year performance since 2013;

- The Mercedes GLE500e climbed one position to #20 at the expense of the Porsche Cayenne Plug-in, with the Volvo V60 Plug-in doing the same to the Smart Fortwo ED in #26. The tiny two-seater, a former Best Seller model in 2013, is having its worst year since 2010, when it was still in testing mode. The new generation can't come soon enough... 

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen continues firm in the Top Spot, with 19% share, followed by BMW (17%), followed by Renault (15%) and Audi (10%).

Pl	Germany	June	YTD	%	'15 Pl
1 2	Renault Zoe BMW i3 *	225 47	1.279 823	12 8	6 2
3	Audi A3 e-Tron	96	796	7	5
4 5	Tesla Model S Volkswagen Golf GTE	226 51	758 720	7 7	7 4
6	Volkswagen Passat GTE	91	657	6	9
7	Nissan Leaf	42	647	6	10
8	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	69	556	5	3
9	Volvo XC90 T8	64	403	4	28
10 11	Mercedes C350e   e) BMW 225xe Active Tourer	52 84	394 376	4 4	13 20
12	Volkswagen e-Golf	97	358	3	8
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35	Renault Twizy   Kia Soul EV Audi Q7 e-Tron Volkswagen e-Up! Mercedes B250e BMW 330e BMW X5 40e Mercedes GLE500e Porsche Cayenne Plug-In BMW i8 Mercedes S500e   e) Porsche Panamera Plug-In Renault Kangoo ZE e) Volvo V60 Plug-In Smart Fortwo ED Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Citroen C-Zero Peugeot iOn Mercedes GLC350e Citroen Berlingo EV e) Toyota Prius Plug-In Porsche 918 Tesla Model X Others	101 87 74 28 32 44 30 22 19 34 30 14 10 9 5 11 7 6 17 5 1 16 5	299 292 274 266 197 192 182 167 166 144 127 83 75 65 64 58 40 39 32 30 22 21 20 55	3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0  0 0	15 1 24 12 14 32 22 29 17 16 19 23 N/A 18 11 25 36 36 N/A 33 26 30 N/A
	TOTAL	1.764	10.677	100

Because of the increasing number of models, the ranking is limited to the Top 35 best selling models

* - 17 Bev + 30 Rex

e) Estimate

Source: kba.de

Tesla Model S vs The Others (*)

Pl	Model	June 2016
1	Mercedes CLS	319
2	Audi A7	268
3	Tesla Model S	226
4	BMW 6-Series	131
5	Porsche Panamera	80

As expected, if the Audi A7 and Mercedes CLS remain out of reach, in June the Tesla Model S managed to beat the BMW 6-Series, all while the Panamera waits for a new generation to get back into the game.

Looking into July, expect the Model S to return to #4, as it will see its sales drop, at least until September's new deliveries peak.

(*) - Considering that the German market is one of the hardest for Tesla to crack, the models we are comparing are not the volume sellers like the Audi A6 or BMW 5-Series, but those that are closer in concept and price to the Californian Sports Sedan.

China New EV Models - June 2016

The number of models arriving to the local EV market is becoming increasingly larger and it is becoming common for one or two models to land every passing month, so we've created a new column called "New Models", where we look at the rookies.

BAIC EX200 - A fully-electric version of the Senova X25, this small Crossover (Think Nissan Juke) is at the verge of the two most important trends in China: SUV's and EV's, taking the BYD Tang career as a token for success, BAIC hopes this becomes it's best selling EV, beating its own EU260 (2.050 units last month) sedan, and replicating the successful career of its ICE counterpart, which is now at some 8.500 units per month. 

With a 30 kWh battery and 200 kms electric range, this model could be the right car SUV at the right time and win a Top 3 status soon in the Chinese EV market, something that the initial 800 units delivered in its debut month could work as a good sign of things to come.

Sales target: 3.000-4.000 units/month.

Tesla Model X - Although not a Chinese EV, this model comes from the only brand successfully importing plug-ins to China, so i think it was important to mention it here, with a dozen of deliveries in June, the bulk of the 2.600 Model X reservations made in China will be delivered in the second half of the year.

Tesla has a lot of hope for this model's career in China, because of the SUV-craze and the important asset that could become the unconventional (As in 10-times larger) air filter, although that success could be hampered by Tesla's own-production constraints.

Sales target: 500-1.000 units/month.

Looking For EV's - Spain (Barcelona)

 

Toyota Prius taxis are everywhere...

The first thing that struck me when I arrived at the Airport was the large amount of Toyota Prius taxis, I know they are not plug-ins and they shouldn’t be on this post, but it was hard to escape the fact that some 25% of all taxis were Priuses (Prii? What’s the name for a group of Prius?), with this model representing an even larger percentage of taxis in the Old Town.

I knew the Toyota Prius was a popular choice for taxi fleets in Spain, but in Barcelona they have a high point, and it’s not only taxis, the Police also uses them.

...I mean, EVERYWHERE

 Third Generation (The one above) represent the largest part of them, but there’s also some Second Generation units running around, as well as the seven seater Prius + / V.

First and Fourth Generations are a rarity, I saw one of each but both were from private owners.

Moving on to actual EV’s, the most visible were fleet units, as with the City-owned Piaggio EV’s, working as garbage trucks in the narrow Ramblas of the Old Town…

Piaggio EV mini-garbage trucks

 …Or the rental Renault Twizzies, which are one of the best ways to know the town, not only they feel at ease in the (many times) clogged streets of Barcelona, but they are also a blast to drive, especially once you incorporate the vacations-mode and let yourself go from every day rational thinking, as this is probably one of the most suited vehicles to use during the always short summer vacations periods.

33ºC, sun & beaches nearby: The ideal place for a Twizy 

Back to more mainstream EV’s, there weren’t that many zooming around, I counted one Renault Zoe, one BMW i3 and two Nissan Leaf’s, one of them being a taxi.

These days spent here helped me to understand why the Spanish EV Market has such high share of LCV’s and fleet deals, it seems that private buyers are still unaware / reluctant to jump into the EV Bandwagon, whereas fleet buyers, both public and private, are more open to it, not only on light vehicles, but also regarding buses, as an important percentage of them were either hybrid or running on Natural Gas.

A final note for a Solar Hybrid Catamaran boat that makes small cruise trips along the Barcelona Coast, the lack of engine noise during the trip makes the whole experience much more pleasant and inviting, making me wonder if the next step for transport electrification won’t happen in boats…