Netherlands June 2015

Going for the podium

18 Month High Edition

The 2.670 new EV's registered in June not only represent twice the number of sales of a year ago, but also the third best month ever in the Dutch EV Market, only behind the historic (And artificially enhanced) months of November (5.5k units) and December (9.3k) of 2013, pulling the YTD EV Share up to 5.94%, a new all-time record.

This burst in sales is visible in the Global Auto ranking, with the Best Selling plug-in model, the Golf GTE, representing roughly half the sales of all VW Golf's and if it were to be represented as a single model, it would end up in #13 on the ranking.

The Second Best Selling EV, the Mitsu Outlander PHEV, also shined, being the Second Best Selling SUV last June, ending in a Top 20 position.

The #3 (Audi A3 e-Tron) and #4 (Merc C350e) also outsold their regular ICE relatives, with the Mercedes representing two thirds (338 units) of all C-Classes, enough to be the third best-selling D-Segment/Midsize car, only behind the VW Passat and BMW 3-Series, which incidentally will have plug-in versions soon...

Tesla had its best selling month of the year, being the Best Selling car of their class (E-Segment/Full Size), with 205 of the 276 registrations belonging to the Dual Motor kind.

Speaking of detail info, here's some other interesting numbers: 89% of last month C350e sales belonged to the Estate version, 79% of all Cayennes were of the plug-in variety, three out of the four VW e-Up!'s sold in June were five doors and there was ONE FCEV sold last month, a Hyundai ix35/Tucson FCEV.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Volkswagen Golf GTE	652
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	518
2	Audi A3 e-Tron	346
4	Mercedes C350e	338
5	Tesla Model S	276

Looking at the YTD ranking, there were quite a lot of things changed, the Audi A3 e-Tron (346 units, new personal best) is now #3, surpassing the Volvo V60 Plug-in, which has only sold 201 units last month, probably feeling the heat form the rising star Mercedes C350e, up one position to #6, underlining another great month for Mercedes, with the B-Class (21 units in June, a new record) up two positions, to #16, another model in a positive trend is the Ford C-Max Energi, climbing two positions to #9, thanks to a best ever 90 sales last month. 

Looking at the bottom of the ranking, the Prius Plug-In had a surprising good month (12 units, year best), rising three positions to #24, which might have something to do with heavy-discounts stock clearance, now that the model is being discontinued.

On a final note, let's take the time to see the PiP career in Dutch lands: Second Place with 1.184 units in 2012, Third (2.364 units) in '13, in 2014 it dropped to #11, with just 87 units, and now it is #24 with only 16 units...

Pl	Netherlands	June	YTD	%	'14Pl
1 2	Volkswagen Golf GTE Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	652 518	3.093 2.490	26 21	6 1
3	Audi A3 e-Tron	346	1.449	12	12
4	Volvo V60 Plug-In	201	1.440	12	2
5 6 7	Tesla Model S Mercedes C350e Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	276 338 80	902 639 460	8 5 4	3 N/A 17
8 9	Nissan Leaf Ford C-Max Energi	23 90	278 224	2 2	4 N/A
10 11 12 13	BMW i3 * Smart Fortwo ED Renault Zoe Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	38 2 18 6	188 186 122 95	2 2 1 1	5 8 7 17
14	BMW i8	4	65	1	14
15 16	Mercedes S500e Mercedes B-Class ED	11 21	54 53	0 0	N/A N/A
17 18	Porsche Panamera Plug-In Volkswagen e-Up!	8 4	47 43	0 0	10 13
19 19	Volkswagen e-Golf Renault Twizy e)	5 5	36 36	0 0	19 15
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27	Renault Kangoo ZE Kia Soul EV Opel Ampera Toyota Prius Plug-In Porsche 918 Mitsubishi I-Miev Ford Focus Electric Volkswagen XL1	3 2 4 12 2 1	20 19 17 16 8 7 2 2	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	N/A 18 16 11 23 20 23 26
	TOTAL	2.670	11.991	100

Source: RAI.nl

e) Estimate

* - 21 Rex + 17 Bev

Czech Republic June 2015

"This market is too small for both of us, Leaf!"

BMW i3 has got company

The Czech Republic EV Market is going at record pace, with 64 units (And i believe a few more Outlanders and e-Golfs, but i only have data from single models), with the EV Share at 0,06% numbers that will easily outpace the 2012 records (98 registrations for the whole year, 0,05% Share).

If in 2014 it looked that only BMW had interest in this market, holding 96% share, this year Nissan decided to return (It was the Best Seller in 2013) and with only half the year passed, it has already outsold its '13 full year sales number (23 vs 16), so despite the strong competition from BMW, the Nissan Leaf is settling quite comfortably here, contributing for the growth of EV market far more efficiently than Opel did last year (Only two units in H1), and even upsetting the i3 leadership from time to time.

As for BMW, the little i3 sold 28 units, beating its 2014 First Half performance significantly, but the real surprise was the larger BMW i8, with 13 units, it is already outselling the 10 units sold in 2014!

Czech Rep.	H1  '15	H1 '14
BMW i3	28	18
Nissan Leaf	23	N/A
BMW i8	13	N/A
TOTAL	64	20

Italy June 2015

Leaf back at Number One

Another month in the 200-something units in the Italian EV Market, with 1.469 sales registered half along the year, it's safe to say that 2012 record (2.348 units) will finally be beaten. The EV Share continues at 0,16%, a low number compared with other markets, but it's the best that this EV market has ever seen.

The Nissan Leaf recovered the YTD leadership, but with the R240 version coming soon, expect the Renault Zoe to respond next month and possibly remove (again) the japanese car from the leadership.

In other news, the Mercedes B-Class ED sold 50 units, earning it a surprising Monthly Leadership, a first for Mercedes anywhere in the world, allowing it to jump eight positions to #9, while the Tesla Model S had its best month ever in Italy, registering 22 units, rising three positions to #10.

The Golf GTE surpassed the Outlander PHEV, it's now #6 and the PHEV Best-Seller, and in a couple months the sporty german will probably reach a Top 5 position, something that is telling of the rising influence of plug-in hybrids here, if we look back at 2012, pure electrics represented 97% of the market, last year PHEV's reached 9% share and now that number has doubled to 18%.

Looking at the brands ranking, Renault continues in the lead, with 28% (3% less than in May), with Nissan in Second (18%) and BMW in Third, with the german carmaker registering 14% Share.

Pl	Italy	June	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	45	260	18	1
2 3	Renault Zoe Renault Twizy e)	6 25	225 192	15 13	5 2
4	BMW i3 *	24	172	12	4
5	Citröen C-Zero	1	122	8	14
6	Volkswagen Golf GTE	20	84	6	N/A
7 8 9 10	Mitsu Outlander PHEV Smart Fortwo ED Mercedes B-Class ED Tesla Model S	11 10 50 22	79 69 58 39	5 5 4 3	6 3 N/A 8
11 11	Volkswagen e-Up! BMW i8 e)	2 5	36 36	2 2	9 N/A
13	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In e)	5	27	2	N/A
14	Volvo V60 Plug-In		26	2	7
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 21	Audi A3 e-Tron Fiat 500e Volkswagen e-Golf Kia Soul EV Peugeot iOn Mitsubishi I-Miev Porsche Panamera Plug-In Ford Focus Electric	5 3 1	16 10 6 5 3 2 1 1	1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0	N/A 16 15 N/A 11 18 N/A N/A
	TOTAL	234	1.469	100

Source: greenstart.it

 

* - 7 Bev + 17 Rex

Spain June 2015 (With incentives)

Another e6 sneaking out of China to enjoy the spanish sunshine

Outlander Shines Edition

With 191 units sold last month, sales have reached a new year best, with sales rising 63% regarding the same month last year, but the EV Share is still at 0,15% (Last year it ended with 0,23%), due to poor sales in the beginning of the year derived from the delay in the 2015 PIVE incentives program, but there will be more on this at the bottom of the article...

After May, the Mitsu Outlander PHEV won its second Monthly Best Seller trophy last month, selling 33 units, but it ended up not recovering much ground regarding the current YTD leader, the Nissan Leaf, as the japanese EV sold only one units less.

Great result for the Kia Soul EV, selling 17 units and jumping six positions in the YTD ranking to #8, if the spanish importer would solve their delivery constraints, the Soul EV could reach a Top 5 position by year end. 

The #6 Renault Zoe is still waiting for the R240 version to improve its performance and deliver positive numbers (In June '14 it had sold 20 units vs the 15 of last month).

Looking at the rest of the YTD table, there was the first registration of a BYD e6 this year, still far from the 15 registered in 2014, but then again, now that the chinese market is booming in an unprecedented rate, i doubt that BYD could be bothered by this.

On the manufacturers ranking, despite an average month, Nissan continues to lead (35% Share), followed by Renault (17%), and Mitsubishi (15%).

A final comment on the BEV / PHEV breakdown, Plug-in Hybrids now account for 25% of the market, while in 2014 they represented just 15%, which shows that PHEV's are making important inroads in what once was BEV territory.

Pl	Spain	June	YTD'15	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	32	190	22	1
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	33	128	15	3
3 4	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia BMW i3	20 22	111 93	13 11	6 4
5	Renault Twizy e)	10	56	6	5
6	Renault Zoe	15	50	6	2
7 8	Renault Kangoo ZE Kia Soul EV	13 17	46 27	5 3	7 22
9 9	Smart Fortwo ED Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	3 5	23 23	3 3	8 N/A
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 18 20 20 22 22 24 24	Audi A3 e-Tron BMW i8 Piaggio Porter EV Porsche Panamera Plug-In Volkswagen e-Golf Volkswagen e-Up! Tesla Model S Volvo V60 Plug-In Mercedes S500 Plug-In Toyota Prius Plug-In Peugeot Partner EV Mercedes B-Class ED Porsche 918 Volkswagen XL1 BYD e6	2 3 5 2 2 2 2 1 1 1	21 20 19 14 12 10 6 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1	2 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	N/A 10 N/A 11 13 18 14 9 N/A 14 20 N/A 22 N/A 14
	TOTAL	191	869	100

Source: foro coches electricos

Thanks to our reader Javier (Hat Tip!), i can now give you a sample of which EV incentives are available in Spain, thanks to the 2015 PIVE Plan, which went online in late April, with no retroactive effects:

Benefits
Category	15Km ≤ range ≤ 40 Km	40Km < range ≤ 90Km	90Km > electric range
M1	2.700€	3.700€	5.500€

M1 - Passenger cars with price under 40.000€.

A few examples:

- Toyota Prius Plug-in, 2.700 euros benefit (25 km range).

- Renault Zoe, BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, e-Golf, e-Up, Kia Soul, 5.500 euros benefit ( + than 90 km range).

- Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Golf GTE, 3.700 euros benefit (40 to 90 km range).

Norway June 2015

431 R240 Edition

The above code refers to the number of improved range Renault Zoes registered last month in Norway, an amazing 431 units, which is more or less the same as it did during last year (433)! A curious feature is the fact that 104 of them were registered in the last day of the month(!?!)

But this was only the most unusual fact of June's sales month, in the 3.752 sales registered (Second best month ever, rising the EV Share up to 23%), there were other EV players showing their strenghts:

- The VW e-Golf and GTE represent two thirds of all Golf sales, with the first leading the General ranking, if we separated single models cars by fuel source (BEV, PHEV and ICE);

- Tesla repeated last year numbers, selling in the 500-plus area, earning a deserved Second spot on both charts (EV and Global ranking);

- As mentioned before, the french Zoe shattered its previous record (228 units, last March), by selling 431 units, earning it the Third position on both rankings;

- The Outlander PHEV sold 421 units, also a personal record for the japanese SUV, placing it in #4 on both rankings, making four plug-ins on the Top 4 places of the General Ranking!

- A few interesting statistics, in June there were 8 plug-ins in the Top 25 positions, besides the aforementioned ones, the Audi A3 e-Tron (196 units, personal best) was #18, the Nissan Leaf was #20 and the Mercedes B-Class ED was #25, with all but the Nissan (The Qashqai topped the Leaf) being the best selling models of each brand.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Volkswagen e-Golf	747
2	Tesla Model S	566
3	Renault Zoe	431
4	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	421
5	Volkswagen Golf GTE	355

Looking at the YTD ranking, the main news is the two position jump to #5 of the Renault Zoe, but there are other models with smiling faces: The Golf GTE rose again, this time one position to #8, the Volvo V60 climbed to #13 and Smart finally realized that it would be a good idea to sell the ED version oficially here, with its car jumping two positions to...#20. 

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, VW is the Big Shot here, with 37% share, followed by Tesla (15%) and Nissan (11%).

A sign of the more welcoming times for plug-in hybrids is the fact that the PHEV's share has risen 3% regarding the previous month, it's now at 21% vs 79% for BEV's. For reference, plug-in hybrids only had 10% share last year...
 

Pl	Norway	June	YTD'15	%	'14Pl
1	Volkswagen e-Golf	747	4.829	28	5
2	Tesla Model S	566	2.674	15	2
3	Nissan Leaf	186	1.611	9	1
4	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	421	1.310	8	6
5	Renault Zoe	431	1.049	6	8
6	Audi A3 e-Tron	196	922	5	21
7	Volkswagen e-Up!	123	829	5	3
8 9	Volkswagen Golf GTE BMW i3	355 117	722 684	4 4	N/A 4
10 11	Mercedes B-Class ED Kia Soul EV	164 117	580 382	3 2	N/A 7
12 13	Peugeot iOn Volvo V60 Plug-In	43 86	342 315	2 2	11 14
14	Mitsubishi I-Miev	43	291	2	9
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 24 26	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia Citröen C-Zero Peugeot Partner EV Renault Kangoo ZE Citröen Berlingo EV Smart Fortwo ED BMW i8 Toyota Prius Plug-In Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Mercedes C350e PHEV Mercedes S500 Plug-In Opel Ampera	29 51 20 25 3 14 3 4 6 2	271 192 77 52 46 39 28 13 9 3 3 2	2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	15 8 12 19 16 22 20 17 N/A N/A N/A 21
	TOTAL	3.752	17.275	100

Source: elbil.no

Sweden June 2015

Golf GTE lands with a Bang in another Record Month

With 912 units sold, the Swedish EV Market continues on fire, beating previous records almost every month, pulling the EV Share north of 2%, to 2,16%,and making it the fifth highest EV Share market in the world, only below Norway, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Iceland.

This continued rise-and-rise of the swedish EV market is starting to show in the local automotive market, placing the Outlander PHEV, the EV Best-Seller in June, in #4 on the Crossover/SUV segment and #30 in the global ranking, and the Tesla Model S in #5 in the E-Class/Full-size Segment.

Also of interest is the significant landing of the Golf GTE, registering 103 units right on its first month, making it the best debut month ever for an EV, while at the same time placing it in #3 in the Monthly Ranking and #10 in the YTD chart (Already Best Selling Rookie), although these early numbers impress, the GTE represented just 6% of June's VW Golf sales, so the potential here is huge, making it a serious contender to a podium seat and maybe even overtaking the all-mighty Outlander PHEV out of the YTD leadership.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	293
2	Tesla Model S	142
3	Volkswagen Golf GTE	103
4	Nissan Leaf	89
5	Volvo V60 Plug-In	79

Looking at the YTD chart, the podium stays the same, but below it, the Volvo V60 Plug-In (79 units, year best) recovered ground, jumping two positions to #4, thus getting closer to last year runner-up position.

The Renault Zoe had a good month (41 units, best result this year), climbing in result one position to #8, while the Mercedes C350e is continuing to climb positions at the bottom of the ranking it is now #16, but a Top 10 position could be a possibility in a couple of months.

On the manufacturers ranking, there aren't any significant changes, with Mitsubishi on top (30%), Nissan Second with 20% share (Down 3%), and Volkswagen Third, with 11% (Up 1%).

Regarding the BEV/PHEV share, pure electrics continue to overrun (53/47) Plug-in Hybrids, but the presumable success of the Golf GTE will probably give PHEV's that extra performance to overtake BEV's in this traditional plug-in hybrid turf (They outsell BEV's since 2012). 

Pl	Sweden	June	YTD '15	%	'14Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	293	1.103	30	1
2	Nissan Leaf	89	525	14	3
3 4	Tesla Model S Volvo V60 Plug-In	142 79	432 236	12 7	4 2
5	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	31	213	6	11
6	Volkswagen e-Golf	19	200	6	13
7	BMW i3 *	25	161	4	6
8	Renault Zoe	41	131	4	8
9 10	Audi A3 e-Tron Volkswagen Golf GTE	21 103	127 103	4 103	15 N/A
11	Toyota Prius Plug-In	14	98	3	6
12 13 14 15 16 16 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25	Volkswagen e-Up! Renault Kangoo ZE Renault Twizy e) Kia Soul EV Opel Ampera BMW i8 Mercedes C350e Mercedes B-Class ED Citröen Berlingo EV Mercedes S500 Plug-In Porsche Panamera Plug-In Ford Focus Electric Porsche 918 Peugeot Partner EV	7 10 15 5 4 7 2 2 2 1 1	92 74 39 20 13 13 13 11 8 4 3 2 2 1	3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	9 5 10 23 12 18 N/A N/A 15 N/A 17 23 20 25
	TOTAL	912	3.624	100

* - 4 BEV + 21 Rex

Source: bilsweden.se

EV Distribution - Portugal May 2015

Following a reader suggestion, i made a small study regarding the distribution of EV's in my home country, this is a small sample (70 units) of the 1.300-something EV's registered in Portugal, based on used car websites, so this should only be seen as an indication of how electric vehicles are distributed across the portuguese territory.

For the information to be easier to understand for people not familiar with the local geography, i have divided the country in seven areas: Northwest (Porto, Aveiro, Braga and Viana do Castelo  districts), Northeast (Bragança, Vila Real, Guarda and Viseu), Center (Coimbra, Castelo Branco, Leiria and Santarém), Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Lisbon and Setubal), South (Portalegre, Evora, Beja and Faro), Azores and Madeira.

But let's look at the distribution of the best selling EV's:

Nissan Leaf 

From the snowy mountains of the Northeast to the scorching hot South, the most common EV in Portugal is present across mainland Portugal, being the only EV present in the harsh climate (Cold winters and hot summers) of the Northeast.

Here's how the japanese car is distributed: NW - 4 units; NE - 3; CT - 2; LIS - 4; SO - 2.

Mitsubishi I-Miev triplets (Includes Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero)

It's also spreaded across the mainland, but in this case it is visible the concentration in the major cities, with half of the 10 units concentrated in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with an additional three distributed among the NW Braga-Porto-Aveiro industrial cluster and the remaining two distributed by the Center and South.

Renault Twizy

The french quadricycle is quite popular among the more tourism-friendly areas as a rental car, that's why it's present across the seaside areas and in the Azores and Madeira islands.

Here's the sample distribution: LIS - 3 units; CT - 2; MAD - 2; SO - 1; AZ - 1; NW - 1.

BMW i3

Having just two i-dealerships in Portugal (One in Oporto and the other in Lisbon), it isn't surprising that these hot hatches are concentrated in those areas, with three i3 in Lisbon (And the two existing i8's) and two in the northern capital.

There is also one i3 confirmed in the Azores islands, in Ponta Delgada (Regional capital), probably imported from the mainland, and it should be a blast to drive there, with that territory being fertile on narrow mountain roads, a place where the little german car excels.

Renault Zoe

Another car concentrated in the two larger metropolitan areas, with three in Porto (NW) and two in Lisbon, with the last one living further South, in the tourist-friendly Algarve.

It should be noted that the french carmaker has the largest dealership network in Portugal and the fact that these cars are concentrated in urban areas only reinforces the feeling that most of their dealerships aren't really prepared/willing to sell electric vehicles to the general public.


Others

In the more recent arrivals / smaller diffusion models, there are a couple cases worthy of mention, the five Outlander PHEV are more popular in the southern areas (two in the Center, one in Lisbon and two in the South), while the two V60 Plug-In are concentrated in the Northwest, but the reality is that EV's sold in small numbers tend to concentrate in Lisbon, like is the case of the  Smart Fortwo ED, with three out of four living in the Capital's Metropolitan Area and the remaining unit living up in the Northwest (Braga).

It would be interesting to have data on the Plug-In Porches, but looking at the general picture of other high-end EV's (The two BMW i8  reside in Lisbon and there also two Teslas in Lisbon, while the other is registered the Center of the country), it is possible to extract that the expensive plug-ins are also concentrated around Lisbon.

Together with the data above mentioned, this means that the NW industrial belt (Braga-Porto-Aveiro) is behind the curve regarding Lisbon in EV acceptance (16 EV's in NW vs 27 in LIS).