USA April 2013

Theme of the Month: White. To start it, a handsome Ford Fusion Energi

At 7.253 units sold in April, sales were down 8% regarding March but they are still way ahead Year-on-Year and plug in share rose this month to 0,56%, almost doubling last year's share (0,30%).

In the podium, same as last month: Model S in #1 with a new sales record (2.200), Nissan Leaf in #2 with the second best ever month (1.937 units) and the Volt in third at 1.306 sales, down a worrying 11% regarding April 2012 and rising just 3% YTD.

But it's in the next positions that things get interesting, while the Prius (#4) and Ford C-Max (#5) see their sales decline to 599 and 411 units respectively, in #6 the Ford Fusion Energi establishes a new sales record at 365 units, in three months on sale it has always increased their numbers, one wonders how many months will Ford's midsize sedan need to get to number four.

For the rest of the market, Honda registers a new sales record for the Accord Plug-In with...55 units.    

Speaking of sedans, all three models that got record sales this month (Model S, Fusion and Accord) belong to the large side of cars, is it coincidence, lack of competition or consumer preference? To be seen in the coming months...

Pl	USA	April	YTD'13		YTD'12	13 vs '12
1	Tesla Model S	2.200	6.950		N/A	N/A
2	Chevrolet Volt	1.306	5.550		5.377	3,22%
3	Nissan Leaf	1.937	5.476		2.103	260,39%
4	Toyota Prius Plug-In	599	2.952		2.552	15,67%
5	Ford C-Max Energi	411	1.577		N/A	N/A
6	Ford Fusion Energi	365	779		N/A	N/A
7	Mitsubishi I-Miev	127	752		215	349,77%
8	Ford Focus Electric	147	566		a)	a)
9	Toyota RAV4 EV	70	282		N/A	N/A
10	Honda Accord Plug-In	55	100		N/A	N/A
11	Honda Fit EV	22	68		N/A	N/A
12	Fisker Karma	14	66		a)	a)
13	Scion iQ EV		30		N/A	N/A
14	Smart Fortwo ED		2		2	0,00%
	TOTAL	7.253	25.150		10.832	232,18%

a) data not available

Source: insideevs.com; Hybrid Cars

EV Business Case - Q1 2013

Tesla Supercharging Stations: Another Out-of-the-Box feature from Elon Musk firm. 

Now that 95% of this year Q1 data is available and looking at the business case of plug in cars, one can say that the only manufacturer making a profit with electric vehicles is Tesla, not only they are selling more than expected, the start up company is also selling each unit with a higher price than predicted, so the Q1 profit only comes as a natural consequence of that.

The rest of the market is trying not to lose much money in each unit sold, research and development costs are high, prices have to be realistic and the number of units sold are below expectations, with some CEO's discontent with these obstacles.

The truth is that it's a long hard road to electric profitability, but some are closer to than others, Nissan is now nearing 60.000 Leaf's sales (and let's not forget the additional 23.000 batteries sold by teammate Renault), allowing them to recover a good part of the investment and along with other measures, reduce the Leaf's price. Now with the production distributed by three factories, if (and that's a big "IF") they can produce some 2.000 units per factory, we are talking 6.000 units a month and 72.000/year, numbers that can put Nissan on the verge of  EV break even point by the end on 2014.

Will the tiny Spark make a difference on GM's electric strategy?

GM is also taking the same path thanks to the Volt project, but it's lagging behind Nissan, right now they are at 40.000 plus units of the Volt family and this year sales are below 2.000 units/month, as the increased competition dents on Volt sales.

GM has two ways to increase the investment recovery: A price reduction to increase sales (Still too early, maybe for the end of the year) or diversification with new models. With the Chevrolet Spark EV and the upcoming Cadillac ELR arriving this year, this looks to be the path followed by The General. If the ELR doesn't need to be a best seller, because of its premium price, for the Spark they will have to sell a lot of them for the model to be important to the GM EV strategy, and right now those large numbers seem rather questionable. For now the break even point for GM looks at least some three years away, maybe on the 2nd gen Volt...

As for Toyota, despite having sold more than 30.000 units of the Prius PHEV, they're not really that deep into plug-ins, regular hybrids are their (profitable) business and the PHEV version is just an extension of that program, so don't expect for Toyota to present new products in this segment, although putting a plug in a Prius Alpha/V/Plus shouldn't be much of an effort, right? (Wink, wink)

World Top 10 March 2013

The Minicab Miev isn't the most trendy car around, but nevertheless it made into this Top10  

With around 40.000 sales in this Q1, a steady 32% increase over '12 Q1, many changes happened in the global Top 10, if 2012 was the year that the Chevrolet Volt took command and other Plug-In Hybrids made their mark, reaching a 50/50 share, by the end of '13 Q1 pure electrics are bouncing back, with the Nissan Leaf back to #1 (even without the japanese sales taken in account) and Tesla's Model S #2 in March and breathing on Volt's neck for #2 YTD, this translates in a rise of 8% of BEV's share to 58%.

In March the Top 10 welcomes the Mitsubishi Minicab Miev in #10 and Year-to-Date there are three new models, besides the aforementioned Minicab Miev, its stablemate Outlander PHEV is storming all the way up to #4 and the Renault Zoe has also climbed a respectable #7.

Sensible alloys for the practical Ford C-Max

Last years runner-up, the Prius PHEV is down three positions to #5 and the C-Max is in a discreet #9, far from the Top 5 positions it had in the last months of 2012.

Finally, the Renault Twizy is out of the Top10, with the summer on the northern hemisphere is on its way, there is still hope for the seasonal french BEV to climb again on the chart.

By brands, Mitsubishi is up three positions, now in #2 with 19% share (a rise of 12%) and three models in the Top 10, just behind Nissan (20%) and above Chevrolet (14%), Tesla (13%) and Toyota (12%).

Pl.    World Top 10            March '13    YTD   %   Pl.'12
1   Nissan Leaf                         2.912   7.785   20       3
2   Chevrolet Volt (a)                1.776   5.182   14       1
3   Tesla Model S                     2.150   4.762   13       7
4   Mit. Outlander PHEV          1.719   4.304   11    N/A
5   Toyota Prius PHEV             1.364   4.151   11       2
6   Mitsubishi I-Miev (b)              535   2.174     6       5
7   Renault Zoe                         1.206   1.717     5      28    
8   Renault Kangoo ZE                463   1.588     4       6
9   Ford C-Max Energi                494   1.166     3       9
10 Mit. Minicab Miev                  344      719     2      14

(a) - Includes Holden Volt, Opel and Vauxhall Ampera;
(b) - Includes Citröen C-Zero, Peugeot iOn.

China Full Year 2012

As I've said earlier, it became available new data about the chinese market, enabling to do a best selling chart, as all models here are homegrown,  most some of them are unknown to the international audience,  I've decided to present the best-selling chart in a more visual way:

2013 Chery QQ3 EV

1 - Chery QQ3 EV

Having sold 5.305 units in 2012 of this little runabout, Chery earned the crown for best selling model and brand in the chinese electric cars chart, with a 44% market share.

At just 100 kms, it doesn't have that much of a range, but at some 6.500$ (tax deductions included) it's a bargain.

A series of JAC J3 EV coming as a gift to...

2 - JAC J3 EV

Another surprising presence, the JAC model sold 2.485 units of this compact sedan last year, not bad considering a price on the high side (26.000$) and a range of just 130 kms.

An "american" BYD e6

3 - BYD e6

Probably the most well known electric vehicle Made in China and definetly the most exported, in its home market the compact MPV sold 2.091 units last year, earning it a bit disappointing third place, maybe the reason behind this is a steep price of 33.000$, making it the most expensive of these ranking.

A Toyota Corolla  BYD F3 DM in decals

4 - BYD F3 DM

In its last complete year (It will be replaced by the Qin), the only Plug In Hybrid in this chart sold 1.201 units, not bad considering the dated looks.

Zotye TD100 EV with green stripes

5 - Zotye TD100/5008 EV

Looking like a past generation Daihatsu Terios (Because that's what it is), the little Zotye SUV sold 845 units in '12 and with the arrival of more fierce competition, it looks that it will have a year full of obstacles to overcome in '13.

2013 Mercedes BAIC E150 EV

6 - BAIC E150 EV

Mercedes-Benz chinese partner BAIC sold 645 units of its B-Class derived model, an ironic fact, since it now sold more E150 EV's than electric cars sold by Mercedes...  

Markets Roundup March 2013

Now manufactured in three continents, Leaf sales are rising everywhere

Analyzing EV's charts by countries, there's changes to be reckoned: In the US, the Nissan Leaf is back to #1, in Japan the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In interrupted the Leaf reign and in Canada the Volt had to share the top spot with the Leaf.

There are new leaders also in Denmark (Nissan Leaf), Switzerland (Again the Leaf), Iceland (Prius PHEV) and Estonia (Yet again the Nissan Leaf), these last two countries crowned the I-Miev last year, so this confirms the trend that the tiny japanese BEV can't secure its sales when faced with more competitive competition. And right now the Leaf holds #1 spot in 9* countries, not bad, eh?

Looking at Plug In market share by countries, it´s a mixed bag: While some are jumping north of the 1% barrier (France, Japan and Sweden) and the all important US market is nearing the 0,5% threshold, most of Europe is suffering with the crisis, the plug-in-friendly Netherlands saw electric market share go down from 1,1% last year to 0,6%, Estonia went down too from an amazing 2,4% in 2012 to a paltry 0,1%, crisis battered Spain decreased from 0,24% to just 0,07%, same story in Austria (0,06% instead of 0,30%) and Ireland (0,04% vs 0,23%) and even EU neutral Switzerland saw it's EV market share reduced to 0,25%, down from 0,42 in '12.

5.305 units of the Chery QQ3 EV were sold in China last year

Recently there was available new data regarding EV's in China and the numbers are surprising, there were 12.791 EV sales in 2012 and some 3.175 sales in the first quarter of this year, putting China right next to France as the third largest Plug In market in the world and i'll be giving more info on this in the next days.

Right now, this data is important because adding China to the other three large EV markets (USA, Japan and France), means that the importance of these 4 major markets is tremendous, putting it in perspective, 7 out of 8 plug ins are sold here, making 88% of all EV sales. It doesn't take rocket science to see that much of the future of plug ins will be decided in these four countries.



* - USA, Japan, Norway, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, Australia, Ireland and Estonia

Switzerland March 2013

Renault Twizy Standard Wheels

Crisis Edition - Chapter Four

Even Switzerland couldn't escape a sales downturn, the total market is down 12% and plug ins dropped even more, leading the market share for EV's to drop to 0,25%, down from 0,40% in 2012.

This March the Nissan Leaf won the leadership by two units from the Renault Twizy, still #1 YTD.

Last year's second, the Opel Ampera, dropped to #5 and just 8% share, surprising numbers given the public perception of the car in Switzerland. Something tells me Opel isn't doing its homework...

Pl	Switzerland	Mar'13	YTD'13	%
1	Renault Twizy	31	50	28
2	Nissan Leaf	33	37	21
3	Mitsubishi I-Miev	12	28	16
4	Citröen C-Zero	1	20	11
5	Opel Ampera	4	14	8
6	Fisker Karma	4	6	3
7	Chevrolet Volt	1	6	3
8	Renault Fluence ZE	0	5	3
9	Peugeot iOn	1	4	2
10	Think City	0	3	2
11	Tesla Roadster	0	3	2
12	Renault Zoe	3	3	2
	TOTAL	90	179	100

Source: auto-suisse-ch

Netherlands March 2013

Opel Ampera's sporty wheels

Crisis Edition - Chapter Three

The auto dutch market is down 31% and the plug in segment is suffering even more, with its market share shrinking to 0,64%, when in 2012 it was at a healthy 1,1%.

With 144 units sold in March, the Opel Ampera is as always far and away in #1, with the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt exchanging positions this month, with the japanese relegating the american to #3, although the Chevy is still #2 YTD.

The Renault Zoe makes its first appearance, registering three units. Renault has high hopes for the Zoe in the Netherlands, unlike in other euro markets, where it's a dominating force, the french manufacturer is marginal here, scoring just 7% share.

Pl	Netherlands	Mar'13	YTD'13	%
1	Opel Ampera	144	463	63
2	Chevrolet Volt	33	100	14
3	Nissan Leaf	59	88	12
4	Renault Twizy	6	43	6
5	Fisker Karma	11	16	2
6	Peugeot iOn	0	10	1
7	Renault Fluence ZE	2	6	1
8	Citröen C-Zero	2	6	1
9	Renault Zoe	3	3	0
10	Mitsubishi I-Miev	2	3	0
11	Tesla Roadster	0	1	0
	TOTAL	262	739	100

Source: Manufacturers, BSCB