Sweden April 2019

"After the all the rough and tumble play of March,

 nothing like some fika time in April, to recover the energies…"

Time for fika

In Sweden, the local plug-in market was up 44% YoY, to 3.059 registrations, with BEVs in particular jumping 271%, placing the PEV share at 10%, with BEVs alone having 5% share, dropping slightly the 2019 plugin share to 12%, still a big improvement over the 8% of last year. 

Meanwhile, the mainstream market continues sliding, dropping 12% last month, with the WLTP blues seemingly having no end in sight.

Has Sweden hit peak-ICE? It seems so, at least.

Now about charging infrastructure...It is badly needed, especially for long trips, without it, PHEVs will still be around for a while.

Right now buyers are running away from fossil-fueled vehicles, with diesels at 39% share last month, with a stampede-like movement into plugins, and BEVs in particular, but because BEVs are still model/production constrained, it seems many people prefer to buy a PHEV, or wait in line for a BEV, than to buy/lease another ICE-based vehicle.

This is starting to become a trend, once a market is regularly at over 10%, the mainstream market starts to suffer and decline, as people move away from regular petrol/diesel vehicles.

Looking at last month Best Sellers, the Tesla Model 3 repeated the previous month win, although this time the race was closer, with the #2 Kia Niro PHEV only 144 units behind.

Another Kia, the Optima PHEV, closes the ranking, with 289 registrations, most of them station wagons, proving that Tesla's choice for a sedan body is costing it sales in Europe, and in this particular case, in Sweden, a wagon-friendly market.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Tesla Model 3	446
2	Kia Niro PHEV	302
3	Kia Optima PHEV	289
4	Mit. Outlander PHEV	245
5	Renault Zoe	204

On the 2019 ranking, there is not much to talk about, on the top positions, the Tesla Model 3 is looking to catch the leader Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (maybe it get there in June?), followed by two Kias, with the Niro PHEV in 3rd, and the Optima PHEV in 4th.

The surprise of the month was the Tesla Model S,jumping three spots, to #14, thanks to 90 deliveries, a new year best, that is all more surprising once you realize it was made in the first monh of the quarter, usually a slow month for Tesla. 

In the last places of the Top 20, the #19 VW e-Golf scored 52 deliveries, the model best score this year. It seems the soon-to-be-departed EV still has some tricks up its sleeve.

The Audi e-Tron joined the Top 20, in #20, thanks to 43 deliveries, making it April's best selling full size SUV. And with less than 80 units separating it from the Volvo XC90 PHEV, it should be an interesting race to see who wins the category 2019 title.  

In the manufacturers ranking, Kia is in the lead, with 23% share (down 2%), with Volvo (18%) now in Second, followed by Mitsubishi (14%, down 2%) and Tesla (14%, up 1%), with both discussing the last podium seat.

Tesla Model 3 and the ICE competition

Pl	Model	2019 Sales
1	Volvo S/V60	7.194
2	VW Passat	2.128
3	Mercedes C-Class	1.835
4	Tesla Model 3	1.451
5	BMW 3-Series	1.317

After a thunderous arrival in March, the Tesla Model 3 also made na impact in the midsize car category, already showing up in #4 on the 2019 category ranking, with the Second Place in its range of possibilities. Of course, the Volvo S/V60 series leadership is out of the equation (quite naturally, i would say, i mean, its a Volvo...in Sweden).

In #5 we have the BMW 3-Series, that needs desperately the 330e version to avoid the sales bleeding…And let's not even mention the Audi A4, the lamest duck of them all.

A bit off-topic, but the 3rd best selling full-size car, the BMW 5-Series, registered 1.419 units this year, while the leader Mercedes E-Class registered 1.810 units, so this is one of those markets where the Model S numbers should grow significantly, as there is plenty of room for it.

Iceland April 2019

Koreans on the rise

PEV sales were down in Iceland (-21%) last month, getting caught on the doom and gloom of the local mainstream market (down 40%!), but nevertheles, the 2019 PEV market share is still standing at 22%, the second largest in the World, so one can't really complain much.

Looking at the models ranking, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV reigns supreme here, almost doubling the sales of the runner-up Nissan Leaf, with the Top 4 positions replicanting the 2018 final standings.

The first change regarding 2018 is the #5 Hyundai Kona EV, leading the Hyundai-Kia Armada (4 models in the Top 10, 5 in the Top 20), with the #6 Kia Niro performing a record performance last month, with 21 registrations.

Both Land Rover's also scored personal best results last month, while the Kia Niro EV and Tesla Model 3 joined the Top 20, underlining the BEV rise in this traditionally PHEV-friendly market, with all-electrics already having 35% of all plugin sales.

In the brands ranking, Mitsubishi (24%) is in the leadership, followed by the new #2 Volvo (16%), pushing Nissan (14%) to 3rd, with Kia (11%) a rising 4th.

Regular Hybrids + Plug-ins Ranking

Pl	Model	April Sales
1	Mitsu. Outlander PHEV	55
2	Volvo XC60 PHEV	21
2	Kia Niro PHEV	21
4	Toyota Yaris Hybrid	18
5	Nissan Leaf	17

In a market where plugins now have over 20% share, plug-ins are becoming more and more synonym with overall best sellers, despite not having full access to the mainstream models ranking, we do have access to regular hybrid sales. 

If we add regular hybrids to plug-ins in April, the high share of these last ones is noticeable, as regular hybrids are more and more being outrun by Plug-ins, with HEVs now only having only one representative, in the form of the #4 Toyota Yaris Hybrid.

Looking at the hypothetical overall Top 5 best sellers, the only significant changes are the Toyota Yaris probably rising to #2, while the Toyota RAV4 might have replaced the Nissan Leaf in the Top 5, making just 2 unplugged models in the overall Best Sellers.

As plug-ins continue to increase share, expect at some point in 2019 this Top 5 to be 100% PEV, with PHEVs winning customers that previously went to unplugged hybrids.