Five Years Ago...August 2013

A Global Player in 2013, having been #1 in the previous year

We look back at where EVs were five years ago, in 2013, to see how has changed (or not).



Global Models - Nissan Leaf is the Leader and Chevrolet Volt runner-up  

Besides the Top two, the Tesla Model S was already showing up in #3, while the Renault Zoe was  #5 and the Outlander PHEV #6.

On the other hand, Ford was still relevant, with two models in the Top 10, while the I-Miev triplets showed upin #9...And no Chinese model in sight. 


BEV's saw their pevious share expansion end, with PHEV's profiting from good months from their representatives to recover three points share, now at 61% BEV's vs 39% PHEV's.

Regarding volumes, in 5 years sales grew almost ten fold, while the market has greatly diversified: In 2013, the leader  Nissan Leaf had 25% share, now the Leaf II, leader in 2018, has only 5%... 

Pl	WORLD	August	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	4.355	28.555	25	3
2	Chevrolet Volt (1)	4.055	17.882	16	1
3	Tesla Model S	1.590	12.749	11	7
4	Toyota Prius Plug-In	2.228	12.077	11	2
5	Renault Zoe	449	5.911	5	28
6	Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In	776	5.083	4	N/A
7	Ford C-Max Energi	651	3.654	3	9
8	Renault Kangoo ZE	171	3.372	3	6
9	Mitsubishi I-Miev (2)	175	3.371	3	5
10	Ford Fusion Energi	615	2.647	2	N/A
	TOTAL	17.964	114.332

Global Manufacturers - Best Chinese is only #8 

The Manufacturers ranking follows closely the Models, with few changes.

Behind the seven major players, figures become a bit sketchy as one doesn't know for sure how the chinese brands are behaving, but taking in account confirmed numbers, Chery was the Best Seller in #8, followed by a still small BYD, in #10.

Ford (#7) and Smart (#9) in 2013 were Top 10 brands, both now far from that status, while at the time there was plenty of hope regarding the arrival of Volkswagen and the remaining German brands. 

Pl	WORLD	August	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Nissan	4.352	28.555	25	3
2	Chevrolet	4.157	18.114	16	1
3	Toyota	2.460	12.860	11	2
4	Tesla	1.590	12.760	11	9
5	Renault	855	12.267	11	4
6	Mitsubishi	1.031	10.091	8	5
7	Ford	1.454	7.598	7	7
8	Chery (e)	200	2.200	2	6
9	Smart	310	1.985	2	15
10	BYD	273	1.858	2	8

(1) - Includes Holden Volt, Opel and Vauxhall Ampera;
(2) - Includes Citröen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn.
(e) - Estimate



Europe - Leaf Takes the Lead

Just like this year, in 2013 the fight was between the Zoe and the Leaf, with the Japanese car gaining momentum, and reaching this month the top spot in the YTD chart. 

The Tesla Model S was starting to show up on the radar, in #15, while the Toyota Prius Plug-in was #4, something unthinkable in 2018.

Thanks to their sales success in the Netherlands, the Volvo V60 Plug-In was #6, making Volvo the fourth best selling brand in Europe, with 6% share, below Toyota (#3 with 8%), Nissan (#2 with 23%) and Renault (#1 with 41%).

Pl	Europe	July	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	942	6.364	23	4
2	Renault Zoe	449	5.919	21	21
3	Renault Kangoo ZE e)	171	3.369	12	3
4	Toyota Prius Plug-In	166	2.382	8	5
5	Renault Twizy e)	250	2.184	8	1
6	Volvo V60 Plug-In	182	1.543	5	22
7	Smart Fortwo ED	113	1.534	5	12
8	Opel Ampera	140	1.420	5	2
9	Chevrolet Volt	480	802	3	11
10	Mitsubishi I-Miev	55	572	2	8
11	Citröen C-Zero	15	398	1	6
12	Goupil G3	30	379	1	14
13	Bolloré Blue Car	20	288	1	9
14 15	Peugeot iOn Tesla Model S	18 240	253 252	1 1	7 N/A
	TOTAL	3.380	28.237

Record Sales Galore - US Edition 

The daddy of EV markets in 2013, the USA accounted for over half of plug-in car sales in the world, with a PEV Share of 0,6%.

GM's poster child, the Chevy Volt,was again #1, followed by three other familiar nameplates in 2018, while below we find some long lost PEV rarities, like #9 Tesla-Toyota RAV4 EV, the Honda Fit & Accord Plug-Ins, and even the #15 Fisker Karma exotica was selling cars (not many, though).

Pl	USA	August	YTD	%
1	Chevrolet Volt	3.351	14.994	25
2	Nissan Leaf	2.420	14.123	24
3	Tesla Model S	1.300	12.050	20
4	Toyota Prius Plug-In	1.791	6.822	12
5	Ford C-Max Energi	621	3.536	6
6	Ford Fusion Energi	600	2.592	4
7	Ford Focus Electric	175	1.225	2
8	Mitsubishi I-Miev	30	958	2
9	Toyota RAV4 EV	231	750	1
10	Honda Fit EV	66	420	1
11	Smart Fortwo ED	182	355	1
12 13 14	Fiat 500e Honda Accord Plug-In Chevrolet Spark EV	160 44 102	310 298 232	1 1 0
15 16	Fisker Karma Scion iQ EV	5	107 30	0 0
	TOTAL	11.078	58.802	100

China -  Chery QQ3 EV #1

Despite being the fourth largest EV market in the World, in 2013 it's hard to get accurate data from the Chinese market yet, sales mounted to 5.889 units in the first half of the year (Now, two days are enough to sell that many units), most were pure electrics (5.114), while Plug-In Hybrids represented just 13% (775 units) of the market. (then, as today).

In 2013, the Best Selling BYD (e6) was only #3, with Chery QQ3 EV (Father of the current eQ) comfortably in #1, and the JAC J3 EV (Grandfather of the current iEV sedans) in #2.

The major change is in #5, with the BAIC E150 EV climbing one position and featuring on this Top 5.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Chery QQ3 EV (e)	1.800
2	JAC J3 EV (e)	850
3	BYD e6	730
4	BYD F3 DM	658
5	BAIC E150 EV (e)	550