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